LIFE  AND   LETTERS 


BENJAMIN    JOWETT,    M.A. 


/ti/     //  ,  Ji;i),t,'  , 

- 


mJ,.2H  / 


THE 

LIFE  AND  LETTERS 


OF 


BENJAMIN  JOWETT,  M.A. 

MASTER  OF  BALLIOL  COLLEGE,  OXFORD 


BY 

EVELYN   ABBOTT,    M.A.,    LL.D. 

AND 

LEWIS    CAMPBELL,    M.A.,    LL.D. 


WITH     PORTRAITS     AND     OTHER     ILLUSTRATIONS 


77V  TWO   VOLUMES:    VOL.  I 


E.   P.   BUTTON   AND   CO. 

No.  31  WEST  TWENTY  THIRD  STREET 

NEW  YORK 

1897 


Stack 
Annex 


PREFACE 


"PROFESSOR,  JOWETT'S  life  naturally  falls  into  two 
-*-  sections — the  period  before  the  Mastership,  and  the 
Mastership.  The  first  of  these  volumes  contains  the  first 
period,  and  is  the  work  of  Professor  Campbell ;  in  the 
second,  I  have  written  the  story  of  the  Mastership ;  and 
I  am  responsible  for  the  whole.  The  plan  followed  in 
both  volumes  is  of  course  the  same.  A  few  letters  have 
been  worked  into  the  narrative ;  others,  far  too  numerous 
to  be  used  in  such  a  manner,  but  of  a  personal  character, 
have  been  appended  to  the  chapters  according  to  their 
dates,  and  thus  form  as  it  were  illustrations  of  the  text, 
giving  in  Jowett's  own  words  his  thoughts  and  feelings 
at  the  time  l.  In  the  second  period  the  material  was  to 
some  extent  different  from  that  in  the  first,  for  Jowett's 
personal  memoranda  became  far  more  numerous  as  he 
grew  older,  and  from  these,  as  in  some  respects  the  truest 
record  of  his  life,  it  was  necessary  to  draw  largely.  The 
second  volume  is  also  somewhat  more  annalistic  than 

1  A  number  of  very  valuable  Lansdowne,  and  others,  could  not 
letters  on  more  general  topics,  to  be  included  in  the  Life,  and  are 
Sir  R.  B.  D.  Morier,  the  Marquis  of  reserved  for  a  separate  volume. 

a  3 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 

BIRTH   AND   PARENTAGE. 

PAGE 

Jowetts  of  Manningham  in  Yorkshire — The  Master's  great-grand- 
father, Henry  Jowett,  and  his  four  sons — The  Evangelical  move- 
ment— Musical  cultivation — The  Master's  father  and  mother — The 
Langhorne  family — The  Jowetts  at  Camberwell  —  Changes  of 
position  and  circumstances — The  Master's  sister  Emily — His 
brothers,  Alfred  and  William  Jowett  .....  1-28 

CHAPTER  II. 

INFANCY   AND   BOYHOOD.      1817-1836. 

Early  training  and  companionships — Camberwell — Blackheath — 
Mitcham — Entrance  at  St.  Paul's  School  at  the  age  of  twelve — 
Dr.  Sleath  and  his  methods — School-fellows  and  school  successes 
— The  Balliol  Scholarship — 'Apposition  Day' .  .  .  .  29-44 

CHAPTER  III. 

SCHOLAR  AND  FELLOW  OF  BALLIOL.  1836-1840. 
Early  friendships  at  Oxford — The  Hertford  Latin  Scholarship 
— A  Balliol  undergraduate  sixty  years  since — Reminiscences  of 
surviving  contemporaries — The  Master,  Richard  Jenkyns,  and  the 
Tutors,  Tait  and  Scott — The  Balliol  Fellowship  won  by  the  under- 
graduate Scholar — Work  in  private  tuition — Death  of  Ellen  Jowett — 
Graduation — Letters  to  W.  A.  Greenhill 45-71 

CHAPTER   IV. 

FELLOW   AND    TUTOR   OF   BALLIOL.      1840-1846. 
W.   G.   Ward  and  A.  P.    Stanley— Tract   XC   and  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles — First  foreign  tour — The  Decade — Assistant  Tutorship — 
Ordination — The  Paris  libraries — Appointment  as  Tutor  (1842) — 


x  Contents 


PAGE 


College  business — With  Stanley  in  Germany — Hegel  and  Schelling 
— Degradation  of  Ward — Action  of  the  '  Oxford  Liberals  '— 
Projected  work  on  the  New  Testament — Archdeacon  Palmer's 
reminiscences — Letters 72-124 

CHAPTER  V. 

TUTORSHIP  (continued).    COMMENTARY  ON  ST.  PAUL.       1846-1850. 

Attachment  of  his  pupils  to  him — His  interest  in  their  works — Hegel 
and  Comte — Lectures  in  Political  Economy — Plato  at  Oxford — 
.Paris  in  1848 — Conversation  with  Michelet,  &c. — Theological 
Essays — Long  Vacations — The  Oban  reading  party — Alexander 
Ewing,  Bishop  of  Argyll — Notes  on  the  Romans — Death  of  William 
Jowett — A  pupil's  record  of  conversations — Letters  .  .  125-171 

CHAPTER    VI. 

UNIVERSITY   AND   CIVIL   SERVICE   REFORM.      1846-1854. 

W.  D.  Christie,  M.P.— Sir  J.  Kay-Shuttleworth— Roundell  Palmer— 
Goldwin  Smith — The  University  Commission — East  India  Civil 
Service  Examinations — Lord  Macaulay's  Committee — Letters  on 
University  Reform 172-194 

CHAPTER  VII. 

TUTORIAL   AND   OTHER   INTERESTS.      1850-1854. 
Widening    social    horizon — Bunsen — Sir    C.    Trevelyan — Tennyson 
— Tutorial  methods — Vacations — Mr.    W.  L.    Newman's  reminis- 
cences    ...........         195-225 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   EPISTLES   OF   ST.   PAUL.      THE   PROFESSORSHIP   OF   GREEK. 

1854-1860. 

Position  in  Oxford  and  elsewhere — Repulse  for  the  Mastership — 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul — Greek  Professorship — Vice-Chancellor  Cotton 
— Endowment  withheld — Work  of  the  Chair — Isolation — Death  of 
his  brother  Alfred  and  of  his  father — Second  edition  of  the 
Epistles — Portrait  by  G.  Richmond — W.  L.  Newman's  reminis- 
cences (continued') 226-258 

CHAPTER  IX. 

FRIENDS  AND   PUPILS.      1854-1860. 

Theological  attitude — Desultory  studies — Advice  to  young  writers 
and  preachers — Society  in  Scotland  and  elsewhere — Preparation  of 
Essays  and  Reviews — Publication  of  the  volume — Letters  .  259-289 


Contents  xi 

CHAPTER  X. 

'ESSAYS   AND    REVIEWS.'      1860-1865. 

PAGE 

Essays  and  Reviews — Panic  in  the  religious  world — The  Quarterly  and 
Edinburgh  Reviews — Bishop  Wilberforce — Stanley  at  Oxford — Dr. 
Pusey's  attitude — Bishop  Colenso — Prosecution  of  Williams  and 
Wilson — The  Vice-Chancellor's  Court — Continued  agitation  for  the 
Endowment  of  the  Greek  Chair — E.  Freeman  and  C.  Elton — 
Endowment  of  the  Chair  by  Christ  Church  .  .  .  290  320 

CHAPTER  XL 

TUTORIAL   WORK.      1860-1865. 

Personal  effects  of  controversy — Extracts  from  correspondence — 
Professorial  and  Tutorial  work — Letters  from  W.  Pater  and 
Professor  G.  G.  Ramsay — '  Colonization  ' — George  Rankine  Luke — 
Society  at  Clifton  and  in  Scotland — Vacation  parties — Letters  321-374 

CHAPTER  XII. 

REFORMS   AT   BALLIOL.       1865-1870. 

Improved  circumstances — Reforms  in  Balliol  and  the  University — 
Effects  of  experience — Characteristics — Speculation  and  action — 
Health  impaired — Mr.  Robert  Lowe — The  poet  Browning — Meeting 
with  Mr.  Gladstone — Death  of  his  mother — Second  series  of  Essays 
and  Reviews — Why  never  completed — Scott  made  Dean  of  Rochester 
— The  Mastership  in  view 375-446 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


PORTRAIT  FROM  CRAYON  DRAWING  BY  G.  RICHMOND,  R.A. 

1854) Frontispiece 

SKETCH  OF  A  CONCERT  IN  THE  HALL  OF  TRINITY  HALL, 
CAMBRIDGE,  GIVEN  BY  DR.  JOSEPH  JOWETT.  (From  a 
Contemporary  Drawing)  ...  ...  Page  7 

FISHER'S  BUILDING  AND  END  OF  'RAT'S  CASTLE,'  BALLIOL 
COLLEGE.  (Copied  from  a  print  in  an  old  Oxford  Guide) 

To  face  page  48 

FACSIMILE  OF  EARLY  HANDWRITING  (1855)   .        To  face  page  236 

THE  OLD  CHAPEL  AND  LIBRARY,  BALLIOL  COLLEGE  (from 

the  North-east  End) To  face  page  248 

BALLIOL  COLLEGE  BEFORE  THE  REBUILDING  IN   1868 

To  face  page  376 

THE  OLD  HALL  AND  MASTER'S  LIBRARY,  BALLIOL  COLLEGE 

To  face  page  408 


LIFE    OF   BENJAMIN   JOWETT 


CHAPTER   I 

BIRTH  AND   PARENTAGE 

JOWETTS  of  Manningham  in  Yorkshire — The  Master's  great- 
grandfather, Henry  Jowett,  and  his  four  sons — The  Evangelical 
movement — Musical  cultivation— The  Master's  father  and  mother— 
The  Langhorne  family — The  Jowetts  at  Camberwell — Changes  of 
position  and  circumstances — The  Master's  sister  Emily — His  brothers, 
Alfred  and  William  Jowett, 

T)ENJAMIN  JOWETT  was  born  in  the  parish  of 
-'-'  Camberwell,  Surrey,  on  April  15,  1817,  and  died 
on  October  i,  1893.  The  following  entry,  headed  '  On 
rising  in  life,'  was  found  in  one  of  the  note-books  in 
which  it  was  for  many  years  his  practice  to  write  down 
thoughts  and  observations  : — 

'My  ancestors  lived  at  Manningham  near  Bradford,  where 
they  had  land,  part  of  which  they  sold  in  1740.  They  were 
probably  in  the  condition  of  yeomen.  The  Eeverend  Dr.  Joseph 
Jowett,  Regius  Professor  of  Civil  Law  in  the  University  of 
Cambridge,  who  died  in  1813,  was  my  great-uncle.  He  had 
a  brother,  Henry  Jowett,  Eector  of  Little  Dunham  in  Norfolk, 
and  another  brother,  John  Jowett,  a  wool-stapler  I  believe, 
who  had  three  sons,  clergymen,  the  Eeverend  William  Jowett, 
a  Missionary  among  the  Copts,  the  Eeverend  Joseph  Jowett, 
Eector  of  Silk  Willoughby,  Lincolnshire,  and  the  Reverend 
John  Jowett,  Eector  of  Hartfield.' 

VOL.  I.  B 


2  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett  [CHAP,  i 

At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  two 
Jowetts  of  Manningham l  were  doing  business  in  London 
and  York.  Henry  Jowett,  of  London,  is  described  as 
a  man  of  character  and  probity  and  a  strict  Churchman, 
who  attended  the  week-day  prayers  at  his  parish  church. 
His  brother  Benjamin,  of  York,  counts  likewise  amongst 
the  Master's  ancestry,  through  an  intermarriage  of  cousins 
to  be  mentioned  by-and-by. 

This  Henry  Jowett,  of  Manningham  and  London,  had 
a  son  Henry,  the  Master's  great-grandfather. 

Henry  Jowett,  of  Leeds  and  Camberwell,  1719-1801. 

He  was  born  in  London  in  1719,  and  passed  some  of 
his  childhood  at  Whitby,  where  he  conceived  a  passion 
for  the  sea.  After  one  voyage,  however,  he  was  apprenticed 
by  his  father  to  a  hat-manufacturer  in  London.  While 
thus  employed,  he  heard'  the  preaching  of  Whitefield,  and 
the  impression  was  deep  and  permanent.  "When  his 
apprenticeship  came  to  an  end,  he  set  up  for  himself 
as  a  skinner  or  furrier.  In  1757  he  removed  with  his 
young  family  to  Leeds,  where  he  remained  till  1773. 
Here  he  formed  two  intimacies  which  had  an  important 
influence  upon  the  life  of  his  sons.  "William  Hey,  the 
well-known  surgeon  and  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society, 
not  only  shared  the  same  religious  impressions,  which 
were  then  still  comparatively  rare,  but  was  also  an 
accomplished  musician,  and  a  student  of  great  writers 
whom  he  loved  to  introduce  to  younger  men ;  and  Henry 
Venn,  who  came  to  Huddersfield  in  1789,  helped  to  con- 
firm the  spiritual  work  which  Whitefield  had  begun. 

1  The  Jowitts  (formerly  Jow-  with  the  Jowetts  of  Manningham  ; 

etts),  an   old   Quaker   family  in  but  in  the  period  now  under  re- 

the   neighbourhood  of  Leeds,  if  view    there    was    no    connexion 

traced  far  enough  back,  might  between  the  branches, 
prove  to  have  a  common  origin 


Four  Generations  3 

About  two  years  after  the  death  of  his  wife  in  1771, 
Henry  Jowett  removed  his  place  of  business  to  London, 
and  his  home  to  Camberwell  Green.  He  resided  there 
until  he  died  in  1801,  having  survived  his  eldest  son, 
John,  by  one  year.  He  is  a  dignified,  patriarchal  figure, 
of  a  strong,  determined  nature,  profoundly  imbued  with 
genuine  piety,  ruling  his  house  with  authority,  and 
bringing  up  his  children  and  his  grandchildren  with 
vigilant  care  '  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the 
Lord.'  His  sons  in  middle  life  still  deferred  to  his 
authority,  and  prized  his  counsel,  addressing  him  in 
their  letters  as  'Dear  and  honoured  Sir.'  His  corre- 
spondence is  marked  by  simple  gravity  of  style,  and  while 
often  expressed  in  the  peculiar  dialect  of  Methodism,  has 
the  ring  of  true  affection,  sagacity,  consistent  purpose, 
and  resignation  to  the  Divine  "Will.  In  early  life  he 
had  owed  much  to  Mr.  Hill,  a  Nonconformist  minister, 
and  in  his  old  age  was  inclined  to  "Wesleyanism,  react- 
ing not  against  the  formalism,  but  the  too  pronounced 
Calvinism,  of  the  parish  clergyman  \  There  still  remains 

1  The  following  excerpt  from  minds,  make  it  appear  wearisome 

the  manuscript  record  of  his  and  gloomy.  He  usually  in  the 

granddaughter,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  evenings  read  a  whole  chapter  of 

Pratt,  is  characteristic  both  of  the  the  Bible  with  Matthew  Henry's 

times  and  of  the  man : —  commentary  ;  which  occupied  so 

'  In  the  government  of  his  much  time  that  the  children  and 

family  my  grandfather  was  servants  got  sleepy  and  tired, 

thought  to  be  strict.  His  children  If  the  boys  showed  symptoms  of 

greatly  reverenced  him  ;  yet  it  drowsiness,  they  were  required  to 

must  be  confessed  that  they  often  stand  up,  and  their  father  would 

felt  a  degree  of  awe  in  his  pro-  occasionally  ask  them  their 

sence  which  made  them  in  their  opinion  of  a  sentiment  or  put 

boyish  days  rather  shrink  from  some  question  which  required 

his  company.  His  family  wor-  them  to  have  attended  to  the 

ship,  too,  was  perhaps  somewhat  reading  in  order  to  answer  it, 

calculated  to  exhibit  religion  in  ...  I  shall  never  forget  the 

an  austere  light,  and,  to  young  patriarchal  benediction  which  he 

B  2 


4  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett  [CHAP,  i 

in  his  handwriting  a  solemn  form  of  self-dedication, 
signed,  sealed,  and  doubtless  executed,  October  27, 
1770,  identical  with  that  recommended  in  Doddridge's 
Rise  and  Progress  of  Religion  in  the  Soul,  chap, 
xviii.  §  7. 

To  the  last  he  followed  with  keen  interest  the  course 
of  public  aifairs ;  disliking  the  war  with  America,  but 
rejoicing  in  Admiral  Duncan's  successes ;  although  he 
feared  that  they  might  unduly  minister  to  national  pride. 

Henry  Jowett,  of  Camberwell,  had  four  sons,  John, 
Joseph,  Benjamin  (the  Master's  grandfather),  and  Henry  ; 
and  two  daughters,  Elizabeth,  who  died  young,  and  Sarah, 
who  lived  to  old  age.  The  sons,  except  John,  the  eldest, 
who  had  been  at  St.  Paul's  School  for  a  time  before  they 
left  London  \  attended  the  Leeds  Grammar  School,  in 
companjr  with  John  Venn,  who  lived  with  the  Jowetts 
as  one  of  the  family.  Joseph  and  Henry  Jowett,  as  well 
as  John  Venn,  proceeded  to  the  University  of  Cambridge  ; 
while  Benjamin,  like  his  eldest  brother,  John,  was 
apprenticed  to  his  father's  business. 

As  three  of  these  men,  his  great-uncles,  are  mentioned 
by  the  Master  himself,  and  as  more  is  known  of  them 
than  of  his  grandfather,  it  may  be  allowable  to  give 
a  short  account  of  each  of  them  before  proceeding  in 
the  main  line. 

pronounced  upon  me    and    Mr.  of  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son, 

Pratt,   when  we    went  to    take  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost  might 

leave  of  him.    He  was  sitting  by  rest  upon  us.     He  did  this  with 

the  fireside  in  his  dressing-gown  much     emotion,     and     I     could 

with  his  night-cap   and  a  large  have  imagined  that  it  was  the 

cocked   hat   on   his    head  ;    and  patriarch  Jacob  blessing  his  pos- 

before  we  left  him  he  raised  him-  terity.' 

self  on  his  feet,  feeble  and  totter-  *  According  to  the   belief  of 

ing  as  he  was,  and  with  a  most  his  daughter,  Mrs.  E.  Pratt ;  but 

graceful  air  took  his  hat  off  his  his  name  is  not  on  the  Register 

head,  and  prayed  that  the  blessing  of  St.  Paul's  scholars. 


Four  Generations  5 

John  Jowett,  of  Leeds  and  Newington  Butts, 
1743-1800. 

John  had  been  at  work  in  his  father's  office  from  the 
time  of  going  to  Leeds,  1757,  being  then  in  his  four- 
teenth year.  But  he  continued  his  education  through 
intercourse  with  William  Hey,  who  read  with  him  such 
works  as  Locke,  Butler,  Jonathan  Edwards,  &c.,  and 
conversed  with  him  on  theological  subjects.  The  two 
friends  often  walked  to  Huddersfield  together  to  listen 
to  the  preaching  of  Henry  Venn.  Mr.  Hey,  who  was 
a  student  of  thorough-bass  and  a  lover  of  Corelli  and 
other  early  composers,  also  encouraged  his  companion's 
love  for  music,  and  John  learned  to  play  the  organ. 

John  was  already  in  partnership  with  his  father, 
when  in  1771,  shortly  after  his  marriage  to  Elizabeth 
Bankes,  younger  sister  of  Mrs.  Hey,  he  removed  to 
London,  and  opened  a  warehouse  in  Red  Lion  Court, 
Bermondsey.  Here  he  was  joined  by  his  father  and 
by  his  brother  Benjamin.  The  business  prospered 
after  a  while,  and  in  1790  John  Jowett  purchased  the 
lease  of  a  house  and  grounds  at  Newington,  Surrey1, 
where  he  was  often  visited  by  his  brothers  from  Cam- 
bridge and  their  friends ;  and  also  by  the  '  worthy 
Mr.  John  Newton2,'  who  is  said  to  have  designated 
John  Jowett's  household  as  par  excellence  '  the  Christian 
family.'  He  was  in  fact  a  pillar  of  the  Evangelical 
party  in  the  Church,  and  his  home  was  also  a  centre  of 
musical  culture.  He  died  at  the  age  of  fifty-six  in  1800, 
having  shortly  before  assisted  at  the  foundation  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society.  His  profoundly  religious 

1  The  proceeds   of  the   Man-  the  last  heiress, 
ningham  estate  had  before  this          2  This  was  in  the  later  period 

been  divided  amongst  the  cou-  of  Mr.  Newton's  career,  when  he 

sins,    by  the    will    of   Eleanor,  was  Rector  of  St.  Mary  Woolnoth. 


Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett  [CHAP,  i 


character,  combined  as  it  was  with  persistent  practical 
energy,  gives  him  a  just  claim  to  prominent  considera- 
tion in  these  preliminary  pages.  His  '  enthusiasm,'  as 
it  would  then  have  been  termed,  was  tempered,  in 
a  remarkable  degree,  with  candour  and  moderation. 
On  his  death-bed,  he  told  his  relatives  who  surrounded 
him  that  he  felt  '  not  rapture,  but  peace.' — '  The  Scrip- 
tures speak  of  the  Spirit  bearing  witness  with  our 
spirits,  &c.  I  should  like  to  feel  that,  but  I  am  not 
anxious  about  it ;  I  leave  the  matter  to  God1.' 


1  John  had  five  sons,  Henry, 
John,  Joshua,  Joseph,  andWilliam, 
and  two  daughters,  Elizabeth, 
who  married  the  Eev.  Josiah 
Pratt,  and  Hannah,  who  married 
Mr.  Hudson.  Three  of  the  sons 
became  beneficed  clergymen,  as 
appears  in  the  Master's  note-book 
above  quoted :  the  most  remark- 
able of  these  was  William.  He 
was  twelfth  wrangler  at  Cam- 
bridge in  1810,  a  Fellow  of  St. 
John's,  and  the  first  Cambridge 
graduate  who  volunteered  for  the 
foreign  service  of  the  Church 
Missionary  Society.  He  ended 
his  days  in  the  rectory  at 
Clapham  Rise,  where  he  suc- 
ceeded John  Venn.  He  had  some 
peculiar  expedients  for  rousing 
the  interest  of  a  sleepy  congrega- 
tion. '  And  now  I  will  read  you 
a  dispatch  from  a  great  com- 
mander at  the  seat  of  war : '  this 
prelude  was  followed  by  a  quota- 
tion from  the  Book  of  Joshua. 
The  reader  will  find  more  about 
him  in  the  Dictionary  of  National 
Biography. — Joseph,  the  Rector 
of  Silk  Willoughby,  applied  the 


musical  skill  which  he  inherited 
to  the  composition  of  hymn-tunes, 
which  have  been  much  appre- 
ciated by  persons  of  religious 
feeling  and  fine  taste.  His  Musae 
Solitariae,  'A  Collection  of  Original 
Melodies,  adapted  to  various 
measures  of  Psalms  and  Hymns' 
(fourth  edition,  1826),  was  much 
valued  by  James  Martineau  and 
used  in  his  family  and  congrega- 
tion in  connexion  with  his  own 
selected  hymns. — John,the  Rector 
of  Hartfield,  held  for  a  time  an 
evening  lectureship  at  Clapham. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  the  Master 
of  Balliol,  when  a  boy,  may  have 
heard  the  preaching  of  more  than 
one  of  these  men,  his  cousins, 
during  some  of  his  visits  to  the 
Courthopes  at  Blackheath  or  the. 
Langhornes  at  Clapham. 

Joshua  appears  to  have  opened 
a  business  in  Liverpool  before 
1823 ;  but  he  afterwards  returned 
to  London,  where  he  set  up  as 
an  ironmonger,  and  his  home 
was  again  the  centre  of  mu- 
sical reunions,  similar  to  those 
at  his  father's  house  at  Newing- 


Four  Generations 


Joseph  Jowett,  of  Trinity  Hall,  Cambridge,  1752-1813. 

Joseph  Jowett  was  a  prominent  figure  in  the  Cambridge 
of  his  day,  where  he  was  Professor  of  Civil  Law,  and  the 
main  particulars  of  his  life  are  clearly  recorded  in  the 
Dictionary  of  National  Biography  *. 

The  biographer  of  his  grand-nephew  may  be  permitted, 
however,  to  dwell,  before  passing  from  him,  on  some 
characteristic  traits :  (i)  his  persistence  in  companionship 


. 


^•- 


PEN    AND   IKK   SKETCH   OF   THE   CONCERT   GIVEN   AT  TRINITY    HALL, 
CAMBRIDGE,    JUNE    4,    1789. 

with  his  early  friend,  Isaac  Milner,  with  whom  he  spent 
two  hours  twice  every  week  in  Term-time,  until  his 
death ;  (2)  the  freshness  of  his  interest  in  young  men ; 
(3)  the  fearless  promptitude  (called  by  his  friends  '  pre- 
cipitancy') with  which  he  promoted  the  foundation  of 


ton  Butts. — Henry  was  for  a  time 
a  partner  in  the  furrier  trade. 

1  For  some  interesting  details 
concerning  him  the  reader  may 


be  referred  to  the  Life  of  Isaac 
Milner,  Dean  of  Carlisle.  It  ap- 
pears that  the  elegance  of  his 
Latinity  was  much  admired. 


8  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  i 

the  Cambridge  Auxiliary  Bible  Society,  supporting  the 
efforts  of  the  serious  undergraduates,  when  even  Isaac 
Milner  recoiled  before  the  fulminations  of  Doctor — after- 
wards Bishop — Marsh ;  (4)  as  a  minor  feature,  his  keen 
interest  in  the  progress  of  music.  He  sang  'alto1'  in 
concerts  which  he  had  organized,  and  which  took  place  in 
the  Combination  Boom,  and  on  one  occasion  certainly 
(June  4,  1789)  in  the  Hall,  of  Trinity  Hall. 

Henry  Jowett,  of  Little  Dunham,  1756-1830. 

Henry  Jowett,  after  passing  several  years  as  Lecturer 
and  Tutor  at  Magdalene  College,  Cambridge,  succeeded  his 
friend  John  Venn  as  Rector  of  Little  Dunham,  Norfolk, 
in  1792.  He  married  Charlotte  Iveson,  of  Leeds,  and 
had  eight  children.  His  daughter  Charlotte  became 
Mrs.  Whiting.  A  good  many  of  his  letters  have  been 
preserved.  They  exhibit  him  in  a  very  interesting  light, 
as  a  faithful  pastor,  a  tutor  of  young  men2,  a  keen 
lover  of  music,  and  an  active  and  observant  traveller. 
He  assisted  in  starting  the  Norfolk  branch  of  the  Bible 
Society;  and  is  known  to  have  been  the  founder  of  the 
first  of  many  Clerical  Societies. 

He  was  a  genial  parish  priest,  who  upon  occasion,  as 
at  the  Peace  of  1814,  knew  how  to  organize  a  village 
festival,  with  dancing,  &c.  There  is  a  touch  of  play- 
fulness in  his  letters  to  his  sister  Sarah,  who  kept  house 
for  him  after  he  became  a  widower  in  1809.  He  showed 
paternal  interest  not  only  in  his  own,  but  in  his  brothers' 
families.  His  life-long  friendship  with  the  Venns  proves 
his  warmth  and  constancy. 

1  See  below,  p.  n.  James,  who,  when  old  enough  for 

2  See  the  Life  of  Henry  Venn  Cambridge,  went  to  Trinity  Hall 
Elliot  (who  was  one  of  his  pupils),  because  of  Joseph  Jowett.     See 
chap.     i.       Another    pupil    was  the  Life  of  Fitzjames  Stephen  by 
James    Stephen,  afterwards    Sir  his  brother,  chap.  i. 


The  Master's  Grandfather  9 

Benjamin  Jowett,  of  Camberwell,  1754-1837. 

Benjamin,  the  third  son  of  Henry  of  Leeds,  was  grand- 
father to  the  Master  of  Balliol.  After  leaving  the 
Grammar  School,  he  commenced  business  with  his  father 
in  Leeds ;  and  when  the  family  was  settled  in  London, 
he  became  John's  partner  in  the  warehouse  in  Bermond- 
sey.  In  1785  he  married  his  cousin,  Anne  Jowett,  of 
York,  whose  father  is  mentioned  several  times  in  letters  of 
this  period  with  a  sort  of  respect,  as  '  Cousin  Jowett  V  In 
right  of  this  lady,  who  was  his  grandmother,  the  Master 
(then  Professor  Jowett)  inherited,  some  eighty  years  after 
this,  a  property  in  Yorkshire 2.  She  died  in  1799,  leaving 
five  children,  Elizabeth  Maria,  Benjamin,  Josiah,  and 
Henry.  In  a  letter  dated  February  20,  1 799,  Henry  Jowett 
the  elder,  now  of  Camberwell,  and  in  his  eightieth  year, 
speaks  feelingly  of  his  son  Benjamin's  loss.  Soon  after 
his  father's  death,  Benjamin  married  again,  and  had 
a  daughter,  Irene.  He  appears  as  a  witness  to  the 
marriage  of  his  son,  the  Master's  father,  in  1814.  Nothing 
more  is  known  of  him  until  the  year  1823,  when  the 
success  of  Joshua  (John's  third  son),  who  had  opened 
a  business  in  Liverpool,  seems  to  have  induced  Benjamin 
senior  and  his  two  youngest  sons  to  migrate  thither. 
They  were  accompanied  by  the  elder  daughters,  Elizabeth 
and  Maria.  Benjamin  senior  remained  in  Liverpool  until 
the  spring  of  1837.  In  March  of  that  year  he  writes  an 
affecting  letter  to  his  sister  Sarah.  It  is  the  year  of 
influenza,  and  the  prevalence  of  illness  has  interfered 
with  the  progress  of  music.  '  Nothing  new  has  been 
produced  of  late.'  At  this  time  he  must  have  been 
about  eighty-two  years  old.  He  died  very  shortly  after- 
wards, in  April,  1837. 

1  Henry  Jowett,  of  York  (son  of      was  Sheriff  of  York  in  1764-5, 
Benjamin,  see  p.  2),  flax-dresser,         2  See  p.  375. 


io  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett  [CHAP,  i 

The  preceding  narrative  has  carried  the  reader  into 
the  heart  of  English  Methodism  in  its  earlier  stage. 
The  names  of  Whitefield  and  Wesley,  of  Henry  Venn, 
John  Newton,  Isaac  Milner,  Farish,  Simeon,  Robinson 
of  Leicester,  are  as  household  words  to  all  this  family. 
The  impression  which  the  documents  produce  is  irre- 
sistible— that  in  the  immediate  followers  of  Wesley  and 
Whitefield,  personal  religion  was  a  very  real  thing.  It 
was  the  mainspring  of  conduct,  affecting  all  relationships, 
not  in  word  only,  but  with  power.  Their  theological 
attitude  had  its  limitations,  certainly :  '  conversion ' 
meant  separation  from  '  the  world l ' ; — but  it  contained 
a  principle  of  expansion  too.  John  Newton  was  not  far 
from  the  kingdom  of  universal  brotherhood  when  he 
wrote  as  follows  in  1800  :  'I  pray  the  Lord  to  bless  you 
and  all  who  love  His  Name  in  Scotland,  whether  Kirk, 
Relief,  Burghers,  Antiburghers,  Independents,  Methodists, 
or  by  whatever  name  they  choose  to  be  called.  Yea,  if 
you  know  a  Papist,  who  sincerely  loves  Jesus,  and  trusts 
in  Him  for  salvation,  give  my  love  to  him.'  '  Christianity,' 
he  says  elsewhere,  '  is  not  a  system  of  doctrine,  but 
a  new  creature2.'  If  the  religion  of  the  '  Clapham  sect' 
appeared  to  cast  a  sombre  colouring  over  social  inter- 
course, this  apparent  sadness  was  lightened  and  relieved 
in  the  case  of  many  of  them  by  the  warmth  of  home 
affections  and  by  their  devotion  to  music.  The  scene  at 
Newington  Butts,  where  Mr.  Latrobe  of  the  Moravian 
brotherhood  introduces  Haydn  and  Mozart  to  the  lovers 
of  Handel,  is  suggestive  of  anything  but  gloom : — 

1  '  Come  out  from  among  them,  tional  Remarks,  by  the  late  Rev. 
and  be  ye  separate,'  is  a  text  of  John  Newton,  Rector  of  St.  Mary 
which   young   converts   thought  Woolnoth,  Lombard  Street,  Lon- 
with  zeal  and  awe.  don,  1809. 

2  See    Letters     and     Conrersa- 


Religious  Antecedents  n 

'They  had  discovered,'  he  says,  'the  secret  of  making  Home 
the  most  pleasant  place  on  earth.  The  young  people  were 
not  restrained  from  following  the  so-called  pleasures  and 
amusements  of  the  world  by  any  coercive  means,  but  rather 
encouraged  to  be  attentive  to  whatever  was  innocently  and 
profitably  amusing.  It  was  at  home,  however,  that  they 
found  the  greatest  happiness,  and  love  and  peace  and  cheer- 
fulness reigned  in  their  dwelling. 

'  What  was  my  astonishment  and  delight,  to  find  here 
a  choir  of  vocal  performers,  the  most  perfect  of  its  kind. 
The  two  daughters  sang  the  treble  ;  Dr.  Jowett ],  the  alto  ; 
Keverend  H.  Jowett 2  and  the  father,  the  tenor ;  the  eldest 
son,  Henry,  the  bass.  They  sang  all  Handel's  Oratorios,  or 
rather  select  portions  of  them,  with  great  precision,  and,  by 
employing  me  at  the  harpsichord,  as  I  was  more  accustomed 
to  read  scores  than  any  other  of  the  party,  I  became  acquainted 
with  the  exquisite  beauties  of  that  inimitable  and  gigantic 
composer.  All  their  voices  were  good,  but  Eliza's  treble  and 
Dr.  Jowett's  alto  were,  I  may  truly  say,  the  sweetest  and 
richest  of  their  kind  I  have  ever  heard,  either  in  public  or 
private.  When  the  doctor  was  not  in  town,  we  tried  as  well 
as  we  could  to  supply  the  alto  in  choruses,  and  could  always 
perform  in  four  parts  V 

In  the  matter  of  education  also,  they  were  before 
their  age.  "When  we  find  Mr.  Hey,  the  surgeon  at  Leeds, 
sparing  time  from  a  laborious  profession  to  read  Locke 
and  study  thorough-bass  with  young  John  Jowett;  or 
when  old  Henry,  the  patriarch,  wishes  that  his  grandson 
could  have  gone  to  school  with  Cousin  Marriott,  '  who  has 
profited  so  greatly  by  Mr.  Penticross's  tuition '  at  Walling- 
ford ;  or  when  Mr.  Robinson,  of  Leicester,  is  carefully 
selected  as  an  instructor  for  young  Benjamin  (the  Master's 
father),  these  incidents  are  to  be  noted  as  instances,  not  of 
obscurantism,  but  of  an  expanding  culture. 

1  Joseph,  the  Professor  of  Civil          2  Henry  of  Little  Dunham. 
Law.  3  Latrobe,  Letters tohis  Children. 


12  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett  [CHAP,  i 

Is  it  wonderful,  considering  such  antecedents,  that 
the  Master  should  have  delighted  always  in  religious 
biographies — that  when  most  suspected  of  heresy,  he 
should  have  heartily  joined  with  private  friends  in 
singing  simple  hymns — that  to  the  sentimentalities  of 
more  recent  hymnody  he  greatly  preferred  Dr.  Watts' 
version  of  the  ninetieth  Psalm — or  that  in  his  latest  years 
he  should  have  delighted  in  commemorating  Richard 
Baxter  and  John  Wesley  from  the  pulpit  of  Westminster 
Abbey?  When  most  convinced  of  the  poverty  and 
narrowness  of  the  Evangelical  school,  and  the  inadequacy 
of  its  scientific  and  literary  culture,  he  never  failed  to 
distinguish  between  its  earlier  and  later  phases.  It 
seemed  to  him  that  its  earlier  spirituality  had  faded, 
and  that  an  overgrowth  of  mingled  cant  and  worldliness 
was  stifling  its  vitality. 

There  is  considerable  force  in  the  following  observa- 
tions of  the  B-ev.  W.  H.  Langhorne :  '  In  estimating 
the  religious  views  of  the  late  Master,  those  which  he 
inherited  should  be  taken  into  account ;  and  which  had 
descended  to  him  through  four  generations.  By  the 
time  they  reached  him,  much  of  what  had  been  lively, 
vigorous,  and  real  had  become  conventional  and  spirit- 
less. The  salt  had  lost  its  savour — and  the  religious 
"  movement,"  as  it  has  been  called,  was  nearly  spent1.' 

Benjamin  Jowettr  1788-1859. 

Benjamin  Jowett,  son  of  Benjamin,  and  father  of  the 
Master  of  Balliol,  was  born  at  Camberwell  in  1788. 
Beyond  the  fact  already  referred  to,  that  after  his 
mother's  death,  when  he  was  about  eleven  years  old,  he 

1  The  Warden  of  Merton  (the  on    High    Churchmen,    I    never 

Hon.     G.     C.     Brodrick)     says :  heard  him  speak  unkindly  or  dis- 

'  While  I  often  heard  him  com-  respectfully   of  the   Evangelical 

ment  harshly  and  even  bitterly  School.' 


The  Master's  Father  and  Mother         13 

was  sent  to  school  with  Mr.  Robinson,  of  Leicester, 
nothing  is  known  concerning  the  course  of  his  education. 
His  father's  second  marriage  may  have  in  some  way 
interfered  with  it.  That  while  retaining  the  impress  of 
Evangelical  pietism,  his  mind  had  been  impelled  towards 
some  kind  of  literary  ambition,  is  evident  from  the  sequel. 
He  joined  his  father's  business,  and  at  the  time  of  his 
marriage  in  1814  is  designated  as  'a  furrier.'  In  the 
Directory  for  1817,  the  firm  at  Red  Lion  Court,  Ber- 
mondsey,  is  described  as  '  Benjamin  Jowett  and  Son 1,' 
so  that  by  this  time  he  was  in  partnership  with  his 
father.  When  the  latter  removed  his  family  to  Liverpool 
in  1823,  Benjamin  junior  seems  to  have  remained  in 
charge  of  the  Bermondsey  business,  his  cousin  Henry, 
son  of  John,  being  in  some  way  associated  with  him  for 
a  time. 

In  1825  the  firm  'Benjamin  Jowett  and  Sons,  Furriers, 
Red  Lion  Court,  Bermondsey,'  occurs  for  the  last  time  in 
the  London  Directory,  and  in  the  same  year  there  appears 
the  name  of  '  Benjamin  Jowett  Junior,  Furrier,  10  George 
Yard,  Lombard  Street.'  This  entry  is  continued  during 
the  years  1826-1836.  It  would  seem  therefore  that  the 
furrier  business  lasted  all  this  while,  no  doubt  with 
'fluctuations,'  and  it  is  probable  that  the  removal  from 
Bermondsey  was  caused  by  some  depression2;  for  10 
George  Yard  was  the  place  of  business  of  his  brother- 
in-law,  Mr.  John  Bryan  Courthope,  stationer,  &c.,  with 
whom  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  Mr.  Jowett  took 
refuge,  when  no  longer  able  to  maintain  the  warehouse 
in  Bermondsey.  But  he  seems  also  to  have  ventured 

1  Inthesameyear,inhissonBen-  jamin  Jowett,  Peokham,  Furrier.' 

jamin's  Baptismal  Register  in  the  2  It   is   right  to  bear  in  mind 

church  of  St.  Giles,  Camberwell,  that   1826   was   a  time  of  great 

the  father  is  described  as  '  Ben-  commercial  depression. 


i4  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  i 

upon  a  wholly  different  line  of  business.  In  the  Directory 
for  1826  there  appears  for  the  first  time  the  firm  of 
'Mills,  Jowett,  and  Mills,  Printers,  Bolt  Court,  Fleet 
Street,'  and  this  entry  is  continued  until  1835  l.  That 
the  Jowett  of  this  firm  was  the  Master's  father  is 
proved  by  the  form  of  his  son  Benjamin's  nomination  to 
St.  Paul's  School,  dated  June  4,  1829.  Here  the  boy  is 
described  as  '  son  of  Benjamin  Jowitt  (sic)  of  Bolt  Court, 
Fleet  Street,  Printer.' 

The  marriage  of  the  Master's  parents  took  place  in 
1814. 

He  himself  wrote  as  follows  on  February  24, 1893 2,  with 
reference  to  his  mother's  ancestry :  '  My  mother  told  me 
that  her  father,  who  died  young,  lived  at  or  near  Kirkby 
Lonsdale  (Kirkby  Stephen  ?),  and  that  Langhorne  the 
poet  was  her  great -uncle  ;  she  had  no  doubt  of  this.  Also 
I  remember  her  brother  joking  her  about  the  member  of 
their  family  who  was  executed  for  treason.' 

Isabella  Jowett,  nee  Langhorne,  born  December  25, 
1790;  died  October  16,  1869. 

Isabella  was  the  daughter  of  Joseph  Langhorne,  who 
appears  from  the  above  statement  to  have  been  a  nephew 
of  John  Langhorne,  the  Rector  of  Blagdon,  the  poet,  and 
translator  of  Plutarch.  Joseph  is  said  to  have  been 
a  Lancashire  cotton  merchant,  who,  after  retiring  from 
business,  lived  first  at  "Walworth  and  then  at  Stockwell, 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Camberwell.  '  The  member  of 
their  family  who  was  executed  for  treason '  is  Richard 
Langhorne,  the  lawyer  of  King  Charles  II's  reign,  who 
fell  a  victim  to  the  accusations  of  Titus  Gates,  for  the 

1  The  volume  of  the  Lancet  '*  To  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Langhorne. 
issued  in  1826  bears  the  imprint  acknowledging  the  latter's  book 
of  Mills,  Jowett,  and  Mills.  of  Reminiscences. 


The  Langhorne  Family  15 

alleged  Popish  Plot  in  1679 *.  Burnet2  speaks  of  him 
as  '  in  all  respects  a  very  extraordinary  man.'  But 
the  supposed  connexion  of  Richard  Langhorne  with  the 
Kirkby  Stephen  Langhornes  is  not  clearly  proved,  unless 
a  constant  family  tradition  may  be  taken  for  proof. 

If  the  Jowetts  of  Leeds  exemplify  an  important  phase 
of  English  pietism,  the  Langhornes  of  Kirkby  Stephen 
are  fairly  representative  of  the  mental  refinement,  classical 
taste,  and  liberal  culture,  which  has  always  characterized 
some  portion  of  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England. 

Joseph  Langhorne's  son  Henry  was  a  banker  in  Buck- 
lersbury3,  and  about  1820  retired  to  Mitcham.  He  moved 
his  family  again  to  Clapham  in  1829.  Besides  Isabella, 
there  were  two  elder  daughters,  twins,  both  of  whom 
have  a  place  in  this  biography :  Jane,  married  to  John 
Bryan  Courthope,  above-mentioned,  and  Frances,  married 
to  the  Rev.  William  Smith.  There  was  frequent  inter- 
course between  the  Jowetts  and  the  Courthopes.  In 
earlier  days,  while  Mr.  Courthope  was  successful  in 
business,  he  dwelt  in  a  handsome  residence  at  Blackheath 
Hill.  He  afterwards  removed  his  family  to  a  smaller 
house  in  the  same  neighbourhood.  He  died  in  1844. 
His  wife  had  died  in  1840,  and  they  had  lost  many  chil- 
dren. Mrs.  Courthope  retained  her  charm  and  youthful 
looks  until  very  shortly  before  her  death.  She  left 
behind  her  the  impression  of  an  active  practical  nature, 
which  had  a  great  influence  on  those  surrounding  her. 

1  Further     particulars     about  s  The    bankers    were    Brown, 
him  may  be  found  in  the  Dictio-  Langhorne,  and  Brailsford.    '  The 
nary  of  National  Biography  and  firm    suffered    in    the    financial 
Granger's  Biographical  History  of  panic  which  followed  the  second 
England.  American    War.       H.    L.    then 

2  Burnet's  History  of  my  own  started  as  an  Insurance  Broker.' 
Time,    vol.    ii.    p.    259    of    the  (So  writes  Mr.  C.  Langhorne,  of 
Edinburgh  edition  (1753).  Corncliffe,  Sydney,  N.S.W.) 


16  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett  [CHAP,  i 

The  Rev.  William  Smith  was  Rector  of  Brandsby, 
in  Yorkshire.  He  died  in  1823.  His  widow,  who  was 
considerably  younger  than  he  was,  survived  him  many 
years,  during  which  she  lived  at  Bath.  She  died  in 
1835,  leaving  some  house  property  in  Bath  to  the  Jowett 
family. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jowett  appear  to  have  spent  the  earlier 
years  of  their  married  life  at  Peckham,  in  the  parish 
of  Camberwell,  where  they  formed  a  lasting  friendship 
with  the  Channells l.  There  were  nine  children  of  the 
marriage,  two  of  whom,  Isabella  and  Francis,  died  in 
infancy.  The  others  were  Emily,  Benjamin,  Agnes, 
Alfred,  Ellen,  William,  and  Frederick.  Emily  and  Ben- 
jamin were  the  only  two  who  survived  their  parents, 
and  passed  the  meridian  of  life. 

A  change  in  the  family  history  occurs  in  1829,  about 
the  same  time  as  young  Benjamin's  admission  to 
St.  Paul's  School.  Mrs.  Smith,  who  was  now  alone  at 
Bath,  knowing  that  the  Jowetts  were  in  straitened 
circumstances,  offered  a  home  to  her  sister  and  the 
children.  This  was  accepted  on  behalf  of  all  but  Ben- 
jamin, whose  education  was  already  provided  for.  '  The 
little  fold  at  Bath2'  remained  there  after  Mrs.  Smith's 
death  until  1841.  The  father  went  to  and  fro  between 
Bath  and  London,  while  young  Benjamin  stayed  in 
lodgings  in  the  City.  A  journey  to  the  West  of  England 
was  in  those  days  a  matter  of  no  small  trouble  and 
expense.  Meanwhile  Mr.  Jowett's  employments,  if  not 
very  profitable,  were  strangely  varied.  He  aspired  to 
be  a  publisher's  reader,  and  sought  opportunities  for 

1  See  below,  p.  27.    The  late          3  Letter    of    Mr.    Jowett    to 
Baron  Channell  was  then  a  boy      Mrs.  Irwin  in  December,  1838. 
of  ten  years  old. 


'  The  Little  Fold  at  Bath'  17 

dabbling  in  journalism,  especially  on  questions  of  phi- 
lanthropy. Mr.  Wood,  of  Bradford  (brother-in-law  to 
Mr.  Gathorne-Hardy,  now  Lord  Cranbrook),  the  first 
person  who  seriously  took  up  the  question  of  Factory 
Legislation  *,  employed  him  as  a  writer,  and  it  was 
probably  through  Mr.  Wood's  recommendation  that 
he  became  known  to  Lord  Ashley,  afterwards  Lord 
Shaftesbury.  For  several  years  he  laboured  at  collecting 
statistics  and  in  other  ways  promoting  the  great  work 
which  Lord  Ashley  had  so  much  at  heart.  At  this 
time  he  must  have  been  a  familiar  figure  in  the  lobby 
of  the  House  of  Commons.  The  following  entry  occurs 
in  Lord  Shaftesbury's  Diary  for  August  24,  1840  : — '  Let 
no  one  ever  despair  of  a  good  cause  for  want  of  coad- 
jutors ;  let  him  persevere,  persevere,  persevere,  and  God 
will  raise  him  up  friends  and  assistants !  I  have  had, 
and  still  have,  Jowett  and  Low ;  they  are  matchless  V 

In  1835  Mr.  Jowett  was  consulted  by  Captain  F.  C.  Irwin 
with  regard  to  the  publication  of  a  work  on  Western 
Australia3.  Captain,  afterwards  Colonel,  Irwin  always 
retained  a  high  regard  for  Mr.  Jowett,  whom  he  used 
emphatically  to  describe  as  'a  Christian,  a  scholar,  and 
a  gentleman.'  The  acquaintance  ripened  into  friendship, 
and  before  his  return  to  his  post  of  Commandant  of  the 
troops  at  the  Swan  River  settlement,  Major  Irwin  had 
married  Mrs.  Jowett's  niece,  Elizabeth  Courthope. 

Mrs.  Jowett,  meanwhile,  had  been  anxious  about  her 
son  Benjamin's  future,  and  appealed  to  several  friends 
for  counsel  about  his  proceeding  to  the  University. 
He  was  at  the  head  of  St.  Paul's  School,  and  in  his 
nineteenth  year,  and  himself  desired  to  go  to  Trinity 

1  Life  of  Lord  Shaftesbury,  vol.  i.          8  Major     Irwin's     book      was 
p.  143.  published  by  Simpkin,  Marshall 

2  Ibid.  p.  301.  &  Co. 
VOL.    I.                                                    C 


i8  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  i 

College,  Cambridge:  but  a  Scholarship  or  some  extraneous 
help  was  absolutely  necessary 1. 

Mr.  J.  Walker,  now  Eector  of  Great  Billing,  North- 
ampton, but  in  1835  still  resident  Fellow  and  Tutor 
of  Brasenose  College,  Oxford,  replied  to  Mrs.  "Wood, 
Mr.  Gathorne-Hardy's  sister,  who  inquired  of  him  on 
Mrs.  Jowett's  behalf  without  mentioning  the  name, 
that  it  was  near  the  time  of  examination  for  open 
Scholarships  at  Balliol,  and  that  'the  said  youth,  if 
he  was  thought  clever  enough,  might  try  for  one  of 
them.' 

This  hint  may  have  encouraged  him  to  try  at  Balliol, 
but  it  can  hardly  have  been  necessary,  as  the  Turners, 
intimate  friends  at  Bath,  had  already  their  son  John 
entered  there,  who  would  naturally  be  eager  to  second 
such  a  proposal.  However  this  may  have  been,  the 
Scholarship  was  gained. 


CadetsMps  for  William  and  Alfred  Jowett,  1842 
and  1846. 

Benjamin's  younger  brothers,  Alfred  and  William, 
were  educated  at  the  Bath  Grammar  School ;  where  the 
most  active  teacher  was  Mr.  James  Pears2.  The  boys 
seem  to  have  profited  at  school,  and  their  after  history 
may  be  briefly  told.  Both  obtained  Indian  cadetships 
at  the  recommendation  of  Lord  Ashley.  William  went 
out  as  Ensign  in  September,  1842,  to  Madras,  and  after 
doing  excellent  service  as  Quartermaster  and  interpreter 
to  his  regiment,  died  at  Saugor,  September  n,  1850. 

1  See  p.  44.  this  time   practically  retired  to 

2  His  father,  the  Head  Master      the  living  of  Melcombe  which  he 
of  the  Grammar  School,  had  by      held  with  the  Head  Mastership. 


Domestic  Circumstances  19 

Alfred,  having  qualified  as  surgeon,  went  out  in  Sep- 
tember, 1846,  and  after  various  services  which  became 
more  than  ever  exacting  in  the  year  of  the  Mutiny, 
died  at  Banda,  October  4,  1858.  His  brothers  were 
probably  in  the  Master's  mind  when  he  wrote  after- 
wards to  a  cousin  in  India :  '  I  hope  you  know  how 
to  live  and  not  die  in  India,  which  I  believe  to  be 
greatly  an  art.' 

But  for  the  great  and  solid  happiness  of  Benjamin's 
election  to  the  Balliol  Fellowship  in  1838,  the  later  years 
at  Bath  must  have  passed  heavily  with  Mrs.  Jowett. 
Her  husband's  constant  absence  on  business  of  uncertain 
profit;  the  delicacy  of  her  two  younger  daughters,  of 
whom  Agnes  died  in  1837 ;  the  weakness  of  Frederick, 
consequent  on  an  accident  in  infancy,  which  arrested 
his  education,  and  the  anxiety  about  ways  and  means 
— made  more  trying  by  her  husband's  absorption  in 
that  unproductive  labour,  the  metrical  version  of  the 
Psalms,  which  occupied  him  during  the  remainder 
of  his  life — must  have  weighed  upon  her  spirits,  and 
induced  a  certain  tone  of  depression  which  is  noticeable 
in  her  letters. 

The  younger  daughter,  Ellen,  was  already  drooping, 
and  died  shortly  afterwards  (1839)  at  Tenby,  whither 
they  had  removed  for  a  time  on  her  account.  She  was 
deeply  mourned,  especially  by  John  Turner,  who  was 
attached  to  her,  and  afterwards  called  his  eldest  child 
by  her  name. 

If  we  except  the  promise  of  the  cadetships  which  were 
due  to  the  connexion  with  Lord  Ashley,  the  father's 
prospect  of  improving  the  fortunes  of  his  household  was 
not  encouraging.  His  philanthropic  employments,  his 
leader-writing,  his  advice  to  authors,  and  other '  incidental 

G  2 


20  Life  of  Benjamin  Joivett  [CHAP  i 

work/  such,  as  the  Secretaryship  of  the  Church  Exten- 
sion Society,  had  all  given  way  before  the  fascination  of 
the  metrical  Psalter. 

In  1841  Mrs.  Jowett  and  Emily  returned  from  Bath 
to  Blackheath  with  Alfred  and  William J,  whose  Indian 
careers  were  now  in  prospect,  and  towards  the  end  of 
1842  removed  to  Teignmouth.  By  this  time  "William 
was  in  India,  and  Alfred  must  have  been  '  walking  the 
Hospitals'  in  London.  In  1846  (Alfred  also  being  now 
in  India)  the  home  trio,  father,  mother,  and  surviving 
daughter,  took  up  their  abode  in  a  neatly  furnished 
apartment  on  the  fifth  floor  of  a  house  in  the  Rue 
Madeleine  in  Paris,  spending  the  summer  months 
mostly  at  St.  Germains  or  Fontainebleau.  In  1848  they 
were  driven  by  fear  of  the  Revolution  to  sojourn  for 
a  while  at  Bonn  and  Aix-la-Chapelle.  But  they  soon 
returned  to  their  old  quarters,  and  in  1850  were  visited 
there  by  Mr.  F.  T.  Palgrave,  who  has  thus  recorded  his 
impressions : — 

'Mr.  Jowett  had  some  theories  upon  Milton's  rules  of 
versification,  in  which  he  took  great  interest,  and  tried  to 
set  them  forth  for  me.  He  looked  like  a  man  rather  past 
middle  age,  and  had  the  manner,  more  easily  recognized 
than  defined,  of  one  who  had  not  been  successful  in  his 
profession.  .  .  .  The  mother  (venerated  as  much  by  Jowett 
as  the  father)  was  a  pale,  white,  graciously  dignified  lady 
of  about  her  husband's  age ;  her  voice,  her  features,  her 
bearing,  wore  the  air  of  a  long,  perfect,  uncomplaining  resigna- 
tion 2.  The  sister,  apparently  rather  younger  than  the  Master, 
was  also  of  a  thoughtful  cast  of  mind.  She  had  a  true  feeling 
for  music,  and  used  to  play  for  me,  when  I  called,  several 

1  During    this    brief    sojourn  Mammas,  fell   to   talking   about 

at    Blackheath,     Lord    Lingen's  their  sons  at  Oxford.' 

mother,    in   visiting    her    sister,  2  This  was  the  year  in  which 

Mrs.  Rea,  met  Mrs.  Jowett,  'and  William  and  Frederick  died, 
the   two,    after    the   manner  of 


Mrs.  Jowett  21 

little  pieces,   which  she  kindly  copied  in  a  writing  fine  and 
clear,  much  akin  to  her  brother's.' 

In  removing  to  Paris  they  appear  to  have  been  guided 
by  the  advice  of  Benjamin,  who  had  already  begun  to 
contribute  largely  towards  the  support  of  his  mother 
and  sister.  In  this  action,  after  a  few  years,  he  was 
nobly  seconded  by  the  sons  in  India,  who  before  1850 
had  arranged  to  remit  considerable  sums  out  of  their 
pay,  to  lighten  the  burden  which  'their  brother  had  so 
long  borne.' 

After  the  death  of  William  Jowett  in  1850,  quickly 
followed  by  that  of  poor  Frederick,  who  had  been  left 
in  England  under  proper  care,  Mrs.  Jowett's  letters  to 
Alfred  in  India  have  a  somewhat  plaintive  tone,  but  they 
also  evince  a  noble  calmness  of  resignation  and  a  loving 
spirit  of  conciliation.  The  conditions  of  the  little  house- 
hold were  made  more  difficult  by  the  step  which  Emily 
took  about  this  time,  in  being  received  into  the  Roman 
Catholic  Communion.  This  was  due  to  the  influence  of 
their  most  intimate  acquaintances  in  Paris,  the  Cruick- 
shanks,  who  were  friends  of  long  standing  and  neighbours 
in  the  same  house.  Helen  Cruickshank  and  Emily  were 
fast  friends,  and  Helen's  brother  was  a  priest,  having 
joined  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  while  still  a  youth. 
Mrs.  Jowett  partly  sympathized  with  Emily;  she  had 
found  comfort  for  herself  in  Bossuet  and  Fenelon l ;  and 
her  letters  to  her  son  Alfred  show  some  indication  of 
what  was  passing  in  her  mind.  The  father  no  doubt 

1  Jowett  wrote  to  A.  P.  Stanley  time  I   told  Mrs.  Stanley  I  had 

in    1856 :    '  If   you  go    over    to  reason  to  think   she  would  be- 

St.  Germains,  my  mother  would,  come  a  Roman  Catholic,  but  that 

I  think,  like  to  see  you.  .  . .  She  phase  has  passed  away  with  her, 

is  much  worn  with  care  and  years,  ending  in  universal    charity  to 

and  I  cannot  expect   that    she  all  the  world.' 
should  live  much  longer.    At  one 


22 


Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett  [CHAP,  i 


remonstrated,  but,  absorbed  in  his  unprofitable  task, 
seems  to  have  left  his  wife  and  daughter  very  much  to 
themselves.  He  would  shut  himself  up  in  his  study, 
even  in  the  evenings,  which  had  heretofore  been  en- 
livened with  Emily's  exquisite  playing  on  the  piano.  In 
early  days  she  had  been  used  to  accompany  her  father, 
who  had  a  fine  bass  voice. — So  things  continued  for  some 
years;  but  prices  rose  under  the  Empire,  and  living  in 
Paris  became  more  difficult.  The  metrical  Psalter,  too,  was 
approaching  completion.  At  last,  in  1856,  the  '  trio '  are 
found  at  Dover  for  a  while.  Here  Mrs.  Jowett's  letters 
reveal  fresh  uncertainties,  and  speculations  about  trying 
Germany  again.  But  before  the  spring,  all  shadows  had 
cleared  away,  and  the  wish  of  the  mother's  heart  was 
gratified  by  their  returning  to  their  former  lodgings 
at  Tenby.  Emily  shrank  from  the  scene  of  old  sorrows, 
but  Mrs.  Jowett  found  comfort  in  being  there,  in  the 
house  of  Mrs.  Lewis,  who  had  known  and  been  kind  to 
her  daughter  Ellen.  She  was  again  much  alone,  through 
the  temporary  absence  of  Emily,  in  attendance  on  her 
friend,  Miss  Cruickshank.  Mr.  Jowett  meanwhile  re- 
newed his  friendship  with  the  Laws  of  Kennington  *,  the 
Channells,  and  Dr.  Blundell  (who  gave  him  an  annuity 
of  £40),  and  at  last  he  published  anonymously,  with 
Samuel  Bagster  and  Sons,  A  New  Metrical  Translation 
of  the  Book  of  Psalms 2. 

In  1857,  the  year  of  the  Indian  Mutiny,  deep  anxiety 
was  naturally  felt  on  Alfred's  account.  He  sent  his  usual 
remittance  in  that  year,  but  died  in  October  of  the 
year  following.  His  father  survived  him  by  only  six 

1  See  Mr.  F.  Law's  account  on  notion     of     chanting     common 
p.  27.  English  metres.     Mr.  Jowett  had 

2  The  work  is    by  no   means  learned  enough  Hebrew  to  make 
contemptible,  although  doomed  elaborate  use   of  English   Corn- 
to  failure  by  the  impracticable  mentaries  on  the  original  Text. 


His  Father's  Character  23 

months,  and  was  buried  at  Tenby  in  March,  1859.  The 
inscription  on  his  tombstone  is  probably  from  the  hand 
of  his  son : — 

'He  was  greatly  beloved  for  his  simple 
and  disinterested  character.' 

In  one  sense  it  may  be  said  of  him  that  he  was  too 
disinterested.  He  cared  nearly  as  much  for  the  things 
of  others  as  for  his  own.  "When  Sir  W.  Channell  was 
made  a  judge,  he  was  hardly  less  rejoiced,  and  certainly 
much  less  surprised,  than  he  would  have  been  if  Benjamin 
had  been  made  a  bishop.  He  seems  to  have  worked 
most  effectively  when  he  was  labouring  on  behalf  of 
some  one  else.  While  he  inherited,  even  to  overflowing, 
the  traditions  of  Methodism,  he  managed  to  combine 
them  with  a  kindly  and  intelligent  outlook  upon  the 
world  at  large.  But  his  mind  was  like  an  eye  which 
cannot  be  focussed  upon  nearer  objects.  His  letters  to 
Australia  are  pamphlets  on  the  treatment  of  Aborigines. 
Those  to  India  during  the  Mutiny  are  full  of  just  re- 
flections on  the  situation — the  views  are  excellent,  if 
they  were  not  aimed  from  so  far  off — and  they  are  not 
without  a  family  likeness  to  many  passages  in  his  son's 
private  letters  in  which  he  expatiates  on  home  and 
foreign  politics  from  a  speculative  point  of  view. 

Emily  speaks  of  her  father  with  real  affection,  but 
complains  that  he  has  so  little  power  of  understanding 
others  or  of  being  understood.  Too  pliable  where  firm- 
ness was  required,  he  was  persistent  even  to  obstinacy 
in  unpractical  ways :  a  precisian  in  unimportant  matters, 
but  without  much  real  power  of  command.  He  seems 
always  to  have  been  too  little  demonstrative  at  home. 
His  children  hardly  saw  the  best  side  of  his  nature  :  and 
the  effect  of  this  reserve  upon  his  son  Benjamin  is  not 
to  be  ignored.  An  unchecked  flow  of  love  and  confidence, 


24  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett  [CHAP,  i 

and  the  frank  expression  of  a  just  pride  in  the  achieve- 
ments of  his  son,  might  have  given  a  different  turn 
to  some  aspects  of  that  son's  after-life.  Though  he  was 
passionately  fond  of  music,  his  daughter's  playing  drew 
from  him  no  praise.  While  affectionately  solicitous  for 
his  children's  highest  welfare,  as  he  conceived  it,  he 
was  superstitiously  afraid  of  exciting  their  vanity  by 
open  encouragement.  The  Master,  in  later  life,  spoke 
of  his  father  as  having  been  '  one  of  the  most  innocent 
of  men.'  Mr.  F.  Law,  who  remembers  him  well,  says, 
'He  was  a  lovable  old  man.  I  never  heard  him  say 
a  harsh  word  of  any  one.' 

After  her  husband's  death,  Mrs.  Jowett  with  her 
daughter  Emily  resided  at  Torquay,  where  she  was 
soothed  and  consoled  for  her  past  trials  by  the  devotion 
of  her  two  surviving  children.  She  died  there  October  16, 
1869,  only  a  few  months  before  it  became  a  certainty  that 
her  son  was  to  be  the  Master  of  Balliol.  Those  who 
knew  her  during  these  years  describe  her  as  a  dignified 
and  gracious  lady  of  the  old  school1.  Her  alabaster 
complexion,  touched  with  shell-pink,  was  often  suffused 
with  a  girlish  blush  at  some  casual  surprise.  Her  simple 
black  dress,  with  a  white  shawl,  and  a  white  drawn 
satin  bonnet,  setting  off  her  slim  upright  figure,  made 
a  beautiful  picture  of  refined  old  age.  Her  manner 
retained  much  of  its  early  charm,  for  young  as  well  as 
for  old,  and  she  was  a  favourite  with  children.  She 
would  not  be  photographed,  and  never  sat  for  her  picture 
although  her  son  desired  it.  Her  niece,  Henry  Lang- 
horne's  daughter,  has  spoken  of  her  as  she  was  in  early 
days,  describing  her  as  'gentle,  sweet,  highly  educated 
in  every  way,  and  so  devotedly  attached  to  her  children 
that  she  sacrificed  everything  for  their  sakes,  being  so 

1  This  is  the  impression  of  Lady  Lingen,  who  saw  her  at  Torquay. 


His  Sister  Emily  25 

constantly  with  them  that  it  was  not  easy  to  see  her.' 
Another  hint  of  the  impression  which  she  made  on  those 
nearest  to  her  is  afforded  by  a  letter  of  Mr.  Courthope's, 
after  his  wife's  death,  to  his  daughter  Elizabeth  Irwin. 
in  Australia,  May  10,  1840  : — 

'  I  feel  much  the  absence  of  your  dear  Aunt  Bella,  so  cheerful 
and  affectionate,  with  sweet  feminine  person  and  mind.  I  fear 
that  while  supporting  and  consoling  others,  she  had  tired 
herself  too  much.  I  never  felt  more  the  distance  between 
us.  Dear  Ben  is  an  excellent  fellow,  so  fond  of  her  and  so 
kind  to  his  beloved  mother,  it  is  gratifying  to  see  it.' 

With  all  this  softness  and  amiability  she  was  not 
without  a  touch  of  womanly  pride.  On  the  whole  she 
well  deserves  Queen  Katharine's  praise  of  'a  great 
patience ' ;  having  borne  the  vicissitudes  of  a  chequered 
lot  with  meekness  and  dignity. 

Emily  survived  her  mother  thirteen  years.  She  lived 
quietly,  kept  up  her  accomplishment  in  music,  and  saw 
her  brother  from  time  to  time,  visiting  him  more  than 
once  at  Balliol.  She  suffered  from  a  stroke  of  paralysis 
in  1880,  and  spent  her  remaining  time  with  her  cousins 
the  Irwins  at  Clifton,  in  whose  house  she  died  in  1882  *. 
She  was  devoted  to  her  family,  above  all  to  her  mother, 
from  whom  she  was  never  separated  for  long  together, 
and  when  her  brothers  went  to  India  she  parted  with  her 
share  of  Mrs.  Smith's  bequest,  in  order  to  furnish  them 
forth.  She  was  exquisitely  refined,  but  shy  and  diffident, 
above  all  in  the  presence  of  her  brother,  under  whom  her 
'  genius  was  subdued.'  It  is  said  that  she  could  not  do 
herself  justice  even  in  playing  the  piano  before  him  ;  and 
when  her  cousins  were  inclined  to  mock  at  the  pomposity 
of  some  Oxford  personage,  she  mustered  courage  to  reply, 
'  My  brother  has  a  high  opinion  of  him.' 

1  Mrs.  Irwin  had  died  in  April  of  the  same  year. 


26  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett  [CHAP,  i 

In  hours  of  gloom  and  misunderstanding  she  loved  to 
dwell  on  the  earlier  days  of  free  and  joyous  intercourse, 
which  could  never  be  recalled. 

An  impression  long  prevailed  at  Oxford  that  Jowett 
had  no  family  ties.  It  used  to  be  jestingly  said  that  he 
was  like  Melchizedec,  'without  father,  without  mother, 
without  descent.'  When  one  of  the  Irwin  cousins  who 
was  in  business  at  Madras  declared  his  relationship,  the 
Governor,  an  old  Balliol  man,  professed  to  regard  him  as 
a  prodigy :  '  I  thought  he  had  no  relatives  V  Mr.  F.  T. 
Palgrave  was  almost  equally  surprised  when,  on  Jowett's 
invitation,  he  was  introduced  (as  above  mentioned)  to  the 
little  family  party  in  the  Hue  Madeleine  in  the  summer 
of  1850. 

The  mistake  was  due  to  the  profound  silence  in 
which  Jowett  habitually  buried  what  was  personal  to 
himself.  Only  at  rare  moments  of  intimate  converse, 
under  some  exceptional  stress  of  feeling,  the  veil  was 
lifted,  and  disclosed  the  treasures  within.  Still  less 
could  it  be  divined  that  in  later  years  his  thoughts  were 
occupied  with  his  own  family.  And  yet  to  more  than 

1  This  impression    appears  to  stories     of    his    childhood — how 

have  been  shared  even  by  Arthur  deeply  historical  he    then  was, 

Stanley  until,  at  Jowett's  own  re-  studying  Rollin's  Ancient  History, 

quest,  he  paid  a  visit  to  the  little  well  versed  in  Assyrian  dynasties, 

manage  at  St.  Germains  in  March,  standing  long  in  silent  contempla- 

1856.    He  wrote  to  (Canon)  Hugh  tion  of  a  "  Stream  of  Time  "  sus- 

Pearson: '  On  Saturday  last  I  went  pended  in  his  little  bedroom.  . .  . 

to   St.   Germains,  and  saw — the  Deeply  musical  also,  he  listens 

parents  of  Melchizedec  !  a  truly  with  pleasure  to  Beethoven  played 

antique  and  venerable  pair,  each  by  his  sister,  while  at  work,  and 

bearing  a  slight  resemblance  to  even  proposes  corrections.' — Let- 

the  son,  each  with  some  of  the  ters  of  Dean  Stanley,  p.  248.   This 

qualities   in  him   concentrated;  visit  of  Stanley's  took  place  a  short 

very  kind  and  rapt  in  interest  con-  time  before  the  parents'  return  to 

cerning   him,   relating    singular  England. 


Mr.  F.  Law's  Reminiscences  27 

one  friend  who  suffered  from  bereavement — after  speaking 
of  those  of  his  kindred  whom  he  had  lost — he  wrote : 
'  I  do  not  expect  to  see  them  again,  but  I  am  always 
thinking  about  them.' 

Mr.  F.  Law,  whose  father  and  the  Master's  father  were 
friends,  as  mentioned  above,  has  favoured  us  with  the 
following  reminiscences : — 

'  My  mother's  family  had  been  on  very  intimate  terms  with 
the  family  of  the  late  Master,  from  the  early  part  of  the 
century1.  There  was  not  much  difference  in  the  ages  of 
the  children,  and  the  two  daughters  Ellen  and  Emily  Jowett 
were  amongst  my  mother's  greatest  friends  ;  the  friendship 
continued  after  my  mother's  marriage,  and  until  death  put 
an  end  to  it. 

'  My  earliest  distinct  recollections  of  the  Jowetts  date  back 
to  1841,  when  we  were  living  at  Blackheath.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Jowett,  with  their  surviving  daughter  Emily  and  their  younger 
sons,  came  to  live  near  us.  Mrs.  Jowett  was  not  a  strong 
woman  ;  in  fact,  during  the  rest  of  her  life  she  was  always 
delicate,  requiring  constant  care,  and  she  did  not  go  out 
much ;  but  Mr.  Jowett  or  some  of  his  children  came  to 
our  house  several  times  a  week,  and  in  the  course  of  our 
daily  walks  we  were  frequently  taken  to  see  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Jowett.  Mr.  Jowett  was  not  then  in  business.  Ben 
was  settled  at  Oxford,  and  Alfred  and  William  were  working 
for  their  future  careers  in  life. 

'  Mr.  Jowett  was  tall  and  carried  himself  well,  and  as  he 
had  a  large  face  and  head,  with  a  quantity  of  white  hair, 
which  was  worn  longer  than  is  usual  at  the  present  day, 
he  was  conspicuous  in  a  room.  His  face  was  entirely  shaven. 
When  I  first  remember  him,  he  invariably  dressed  in  black, 
and  usually  wore  a  dress  coat,  and,  until  his  latter  days, 

1  This  must  have  been  during  Peckham  Lane.    Mrs.  Law  was  a 

the  Jowetts'  early  married  life  at  younger  sister  of  the  late  Baron 

Peckham,   where   the   Channells  Channell. 
also    lived,    at    the    corner    of 


28  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett 

he  very  rarely  put  on  a  great-coat,  whatever  the  weather 
might  be.  He  was  still  active  and  fond  of  walking,  and 
took  his  constitutional  with  great  regularity  till  age  interfered 
with  his  doing  so.  Though  not  a  teetotaler,  he  was  most 
temperate  as  regards  stimulants.  On  general  subjects  he  was 
a  well-informed  man,  and  had  an  extensive  knowledge  of 
the  English  Poets.  I  do  not  remember  his  showing  any 
acquaintance  with  foreign  authors.  Still  he  certainly  knew 
the  French  language,  in  which  he  could  converse  fluently, 
although  his  accent,  I  imagine,  was  very  English.  From 
time  to  time  he  would  write  a  few  hymns,  and  paraphrases 
of  portions  of  Scripture,  and  sometimes  set  them  to  music  ; 
but,  so  far  as  I  can  recall,  his  translation  of  the  Psalms 
was  the  only  thing  he  published.  His  handwriting  was  some- 
what cramped,  and  the  formation  of  his  letters  small  and  not 
regular,  though  he  gave  much  time  to  his  pen. 

'He  was  very  fond  of  sacred  music,  caring  little  about 
secular — I  do  not  remember  his  voice  until  it  was  failing 
him ;  it  must  have  been  a  powerful  and  deep  bass  in  its 
prime — and  he  was  never  happier  than  when  he  could  get 
some  one  to  accompany  him  in  the  songs  from  Handel's  and 
Mendelssohn's  Oratorios,  to  which  he  would  sing  by  the  hour, 
without  seeming  to  tire.  He  himself  only  touched  the  piano 
when  none  of  the  ladies  were  at  hand  to  accompany  him. 

'  Though  not  devoid  of  imagination  and  sentiment,  Mr.  Jowett 
had  not  much  originality  of  thought,  and  was  by  no  means 
inclined  to  develope  any  new  theories,  whether  in  reference 
to  religious  or  secular  matters. 

'  Upon  political  matters,  his  views  were  strongly  Conservative. 
He  was  a  very  regular  attendant  at  Divine  Service,  and  a  good 
Churchman  according  to  his  own  belief  as  one  of  the  old 
Orthodox  School  of  thinkers.  He  did  not  obtrude  his  opinions 
upon  others ;  but,  proud  as  he  was,  and  he  was  very  proud 
of  his  son's  success  at  Balliol,  his  most  intimate  friends  under- 
stood that  he  entirely  dissented  from  and  deeply  regretted  his 
son's  convictions  upon  these  points.' 


INFANCY   AND   BOYHOOD.       1817-1836 

EARLY  training  and  companionships — Camberwell — Blackheath — 
Mitcham — Entrance  at  St.  Paul's  School  at  the  age  of  twelve — 
Dr.  Sleath  and  his  methods — School-fellows  and  school  successes 
— The  Balliol  Scholarship — '  Apposition  Day.' 

T71B-OM  the  preceding  survey  of  two  hundred  years 
-*-  we  return  to  the  second  decade  of  this  century, 
and  to  the  child  Benjamin.  He,  who  all  his  life  was 
the  friend  of  children,  must  have  had  a  happy  child- 
hood ;  but  few  traces  of  it  can  be  recovered  now.  There 
is  a  family  rumour  or  tradition  that  he  was  brought  up 
by  two  maiden  aunts,  but  if  there  is  any  foundation  for 
this,  it  must  be  extremely  slight.  Mrs.  Jowett  was 
never  very  strong,  and  in  the  years  from  1820-1823  her 
maternal  cares  may  have  been  largely  engrossed  by  little 
Frank,  who  died  at  four  years  old.  Benjamin  was  then 
a  child  of  five  or  six,  and  would  be  often  at  his  grand- 
father's, much  petted  by  his  father's  sisters,  Elizabeth 
and  Maria,  after  the  grave  and  solemn  manner  of  that 
household.  Their  cousin,  Mrs.  Whiting  (Henry  of  Little 
Dunham's  daughter),  was  often  heard  to  remark  on  the 
docility  and  gentleness  of  the  child. 

But  this  state  of  things  ceased,  as  we  know,  in  1823, 
when  the  old  home  at  Camberwell  Green  was  broken 


30  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  n 

up  for  the  removal  to  Liverpool1.  In  the  years  which 
followed  it  is  unlikely  that  the  boy  owed  much  to 
any  one  except  his  mother.  No  doubt  there  were  visits 
to  his  uncle  Henry  Langhorne  at  Mitcham,  whose  good 
looks  he  was  supposed  to  inherit,  and  to  the  Courthopes' 
house  at  Blackheath  Hill.  There  he  was  seen  by  some 
who  long  remembered  it,  'a  bright  and  merry  child, 
running  about  on  Blackheath  Common.'  An  early  recol- 
lection, which  came  back  to  him  in  his  last  years,  although 
of  trivial  import,  may  be  touched  in  passing.  He  re- 
membered that  when  a  child,  he  had  been  made  to 
stand  upon  the  table  after  dinner  and  to  repeat  poetry 
for  the  entertainment  of  the  guests.  At  Mitcham,  as 
the  years  went  on,  he  also  received  some  of  his 
earlier  lessons  in  Latin  and  Greek  from  the  tutor  who 
was  employed  in  teaching  his  cousins.  Miss  Lang- 
horne (H.  Langhorne's  daughter)  writes :  '  He  was  a 
pale,  delicate-looking  boy,  of  unusual  mental  precocity, 
and  he  learned  for  a  while  with  my  brothers'  tutor, 
Mr.  Richardson.  I  have  heard  them  say  that  they  had 
no  chance  against  him  in  their  Greek  lessons.'  At 
other  times  it  is  said  that  his  father  used  to  instruct 
him2.  The  visits  to  Blackheath  Hill  were  of  a  more 
holiday  kind  ;  but  sometimes,  while  the  other  children 
were  at  play,  young  Benjamin  would  be  stretched  upon 
the  hearth-rug  with  Pope's  Homer  or  a  volume  of  Bollin's 
Ancient  History. 

If  there  were  bright  memories  associated  with  those 
early  playmates,  there  were  also  sad  ones.  Four  of  the 
Courthope  cousins,  Jane,  Fanny,  Emma,  and  Harriet, 
died  before  reaching  the  age  of  twenty-five.  Emma 

1  p.  9.  hithe,  who  told  it  to  her  grandson. 

2  The  authority  for  this  is  Mrs.      the  Rev.  R.  B.  Gardiner,  now  a 
Thomas    Courthope,   of   Rother-      master  at  St.  Paul's  School. 


1817-1836]  Infancy  and  Boyhood  31 

and  Harriet  were  of  an  age  to  be  companions  of  Emily 
and  Benjamin.  They  were  accomplished  young  women, 
with  a  great  natural  gift  for  drawing.  Sidney  Court  - 
hope,  nearly  of  the  same  age  with  Benjamin,  early 
became  an  invalid.  He  died  shortly  after  his  father, 
in  1845.  His  cousin  Benjamin  was  very  attentive  to 
him  during  his  illness. 

Speaking  of  the  years  after  1826,  when  Henry  Lang- 
horne  had  removed  to  Clapham,  Miss  Langhorne  says : 
'  It  was  customary  for  Benjamin  to  shut  himself  up  with 
his  sister  Emily  in  a  room  with  their  books,  where  they 
spent  hours  in  close  study  together.'  Emily  was  a  good 
Latin  scholar. 

It  is  obvious,  from  the  previous  chapter,  that  the 
family  life,  though  attended  with  some  degree  of  religious 
severity,  was  cheered  with  graceful  music,  with  the  com- 
panionship of  books,  and  an  atmosphere  of  liberal  culture. 
The  force  of  home  impressions  appears  in  the  delicate  and 
characteristic  handwriting  which  Jowett  long  retained 
in  spite  of  school  exercises,  University  essays,  and  other 
causes  usually  destructive  of  such  an  accomplishment. 
This  was  evidently  learned  from  his  mother,  who  wrote 
the  finest  of  'Italian'  hands,  and  as  late  as  1844  his 
writing  closely  resembled  that  of  his  sister  *. 

The  poet  most  in  favour  with  that  household,  as  with 
others  of  a  similar  type,  was  naturally  William  Cowper. 
When  a  lady  who  met  Jowett  at  C.  Bowen's2  house  in 
Chester  Square  (at  some  time  in  the  seventies)  happened 
to  quote  Cowper,  he  said, '  I  was  brought  up  on  Cowper ' ; 
and  they  continued  for  good  part  of  an  hour  repeating 
familiar  lines  without  exhausting  either's  repertory. 

1  It  appears,  however,  that  Mr.      ticular   about    the    neatness    of 
Bean,  his  master  during  his  first      exercises. 
year  at  St.  Paul's,  was  very  par-         2  Lord  Bowen. 


32  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  n 

St.  Paul's  School,  1829-1836. 

Jowett  was  admitted  into  St.  Paul's  School  June  16, 
1829,  on  the  nomination  of  Thomas  Osborne  of  the  Mercers' 
Company,  Surveyor-Accountant  of  St.  Paul's  School, 
who  is  said  to  have  been  an  engraver  and  printer  at 
72  Lombard  Street.  Benjamin  was  now  twelve  years  old, 
and  in  consequence  missed  some  advantages  which  would 
have  been  secured  by  entering  two  years  earlier.  His 
previous  education,  whatever  it  was,  must  have  been  fairly 
efficient,  for  he  was  placed  high  on  entrance,  and  rose 
rapidly  in  the  school.  There  were  eight  forms  then  as 
now,  and  he  was  entered  in  the  sixth,  where  he  remained 
only  for  one  year.  The  High  Master  at  this  time  was 
Dr.  John  Sleath,  of  Wadham  College,  Oxford.  He  held  the 
post  from  1814-1837,  and  during  that  time  gained  much 
credit  for  the  school,  which  was  not  then  regarded  at 
the  Universities  as  on  a  level  with  the  great  public 
schools.  He  used  to  say,  '  I  do  not  profess  to  be  a  good 
scholar,  but  I  make  my  scholars  polish  one  another1.' 
The  '  Sur-master '  was  a  Mr.  W.  A.  C.  Durham  (commonly 
called  '  Whack  Durham '),  but  Jowett  never  came  under 
him,  as  the  sixth  were  taught  by  Dr.  Sleath' s  assistant, 
Mr.  John  Phillips  Bean.  The  hours  of  school-work  in 
those  days  were  from  seven  or  eight  to  eleven  or 
twelve  in  the  morning,  and  from  two  to  four  in  the 
afternoon  three  days  a  week.  In  the  interval  Benjamin, 
who  had  his  own  separate  lodging  (it  was  a  lonely  boy- 
hood), used  to  be  taken  by  his  father  to  dine  at  some 
literary  chop-house,  such  as  'The  Cheshire  Cheese.'  The 
lidbitues  of  the  place  were  embarrassed  by  the  presence 

1  In  this  boast  he  was  more  others.     Sleath  had  been  private 

than  justified,  having  amongst  his  tutor  to  Walter  Savage   Landor 

former  pupils  such  men  as  Prince  when  a  boy  at  Rugby. 
Lee,  Canon  Blakesley,  and  many 


1817-1836]  At  St.  Paul's  School  33 

of  the  boy,  the  more  so  as  the  father  would  'put  him 
through  his  facings  '  in  their  hearing. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  at  first  coming  to  school 
young  Jowett  was  more  distinguished  in  Mathematics 
than  in  Classics  (there  was  little  mathematical  teaching 
then  in  St.  Paul's),  but  he  must  have  made  marked 
progress  in  Greek  studies  before  1833,  in  which  year 
several  of  his  Greek  exercises  were  copied  into  the 
school  album  or  'playbook,'  entitled  Musae  Paulinae, 
where  they  are  still  preserved  \  They  are  not  without 
school-boy  errors  (which  to  the  credit  of  the  authorities 
remain  uncorrected),  but  they  already  show  a  fine  sense 
of  literary  form,  and  a  true  feeling  for  Greek  tragedy  ; 
and  as  they  are  not  translations,  but  original  compositions 
on  set  themes,  they  evince  no  little  resource  and  dexterity 
in  a  boy  of  sixteen.  The  following  epigram  in  elegiacs  — 
the  other  exercises  are  all  in  iambics  —  may  be  quoted  as 
a  sample  of  his  youthful  invention  :  — 

In  Mercurii  Imaginem. 


ei   Kd/cos   e,      ae  /z.    es  X*Pa<si    €L        a/^eet?  p.ov, 
fir]  crv,   K\OTrevs  Trep  ewv,   /cAei^ov  b  fir)  voeets' 
crot  Se   <f>iXo<s  TOIS  trowri  r    f.<f>w   e/te   8'  ev^o/iai  cTvai 
Totcri   KO.XOLCTI  KO.KOV,  roicrt   KaKotcri   KaXov  2- 

1  Cf.   G.  R.   Kingdon,  S.  J.,  in  the  captain  standing  aside,  Sleath 

The  Pauline,  1884:  'Now  and  then  would   say   in  his  most  solemn 

the  High  Master  would  say  to  the  tone,    "  There  will    be    a    play 

captain  just  before  the   end  of  to-day  for  the  good  compositions 

morning  school-time,  "  Fetch  the  of.  .  ./'whatever  the  names  of  the 

playbook."    Then  we  knew  that  favoured  ones  happened  to  be.  .  .  . 

we   were  in   for  a  half-holiday;  The  particular  compositionswhich 

and   at    the    sight   of   the    big,  gained  the  half-holiday  had   to 

morocco-bound,  gilt-edged  book  be  written  out  in  the  playbook, 

brought  in  from  the  library,  there  for    the    admiration    of     future 

would  be  a  deal  of  finger-snapping  generations,   or,   perhaps,    more 

among  the  smaller  boys.     Taking  often  for  their  amusement.' 

the  book  on  his  arm  at  prayer-time,  2  I  have  thrown  in  the  accents, 

VOL.  I.  D 


34  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  n 

(Inscription  for  a  statue  of  Mercury. 
'Are  you  a  rogue?    Then  take  me  in  your  hand. 
But  steal  me  not  before  you  understand. 
I  am  your  friend  !    a  god  of  varying  mood, 
Kind  to  bad  men,  but  evil  to  the  good.'  —  L.  C.) 

Puerile  as  the  verses  are,  and  not  quite  accurate,  they 
have  something  in  them  of  the  sly  simplicity  which 
marked  many  of  Jowett's  sayings  in  after  life. 

In  these  years  he  formed  the  habits  of  industry,  of 
neatness,  and  of  methodical  study,  which  never  left  him. 
The  teachableness,  which  he  always  regarded  as  the  best 
sign  of  promise  in  boyhood,  must  have  been  strongly 
characteristic  of  him  ;  and  the  rarity  of  outdoor  amuse- 
ments, of  which  the  educational  value  was  then  little 
recognized,  also  left  its  impress  on  his  after  career.  In 
compensation  for  this  want  he  early  became  a  voracious 
reader.  He  would  'fly  upon  a  new  book,'  as  he  once 
told  me,  and  in  the  holidays  passed  with  his  sister  at 
Blackheath  or  Clapham  this  taste  must  have  been  in- 
dulged to  the  full.  The  habit  of  learning  poetry  by 

which  had  been  omitted  accord-  edition  :  — 

ing  to  a  fashion  of  the  day.     It          '  Epigramma,    fortasse    sepul- 

is    worth    observing   that    in    a  crale,  ex  persona  Thucydidis,  ad 

truly   mercurial   spirit  the  form  calcem  codicis  Augustani  adiec- 

of  the  epigram  is  'conveyed'  from  turn  '  (v.  Jacobsii  Anthol.  gr.  t.  4, 

one   on   Thucydides,  quoted  by  p.  231). 

Bothe    in   the    preface    to    his 

*Q  (piXos,  el  vofpos  «t,  Xa/3e  fi    e?  X*Pas'   e*  ^  ir 

vijis  Movcrdav,  pfyov  a  /j,f)  voeeis. 
eifii  yap  ov  iravrfcrcri  PO.TOS,  Travpoi  §'  dydcravTO 
'OXdpou,   KfKpOTridrjv  TO  yevos. 


(Friend,  art  thou  learn'd  ?    Then  take  me  in  your  hand  : 
But  if  unlearn'd,  stay  till  you  understand  : 
Few  find  their  way  in  me  ;  the  many  scorn 
The  son  of  Olorus,  Athenian  born.  —  L.  C.) 


1817-1836]  At  St.  Paul's  School  35 

heart  was  at  that  time  far  more  cultivated  than  it  is 
now,  both  at  school  and  in  enlightened  homes.  One  of 
his  latest  recollections  was  that  he  and  Emily  had  once 
tried  who  could  first  commit  to  memory  a  thousand  lines 
of  Virgil.  Before  he  left  St.  Paul's  he  could  repeat 
the  greater  part  of  Virgil  and  Sophocles,  probably  also 
the  Trilogy  and  Prometheus  of  Aeschylus.  He  never 
regretted  this,  although  he  sometimes  wished  that  the 
same  attention  had  been  given  to  English  literature. 
But  he  had  more  of  English  verse  at  his  command 
than  is  at  all  common  nowadays,  and  could  recite  long 
passages  from  his  favourite  authors.  His  intimate 
familiarity  with  Shakespeare  came  later. 

The  teaching  at  St.  Paul's  appears  to  have  been  well 
adapted,  if  not  to  produce  the  extreme  accuracy  of  verbal 
scholarship  for  which  (some  years  after  this)  other  great 
schools  were  famous,  at  least  to  imbue  the  minds  of  boys 
with  a  genuine  love  of  literature.  And  one  method 
was  in  use,  that  of  retranslating  from  English  into  the 
original  Latin  or  Greek,  in  which  Jowett  himself  always 
firmly  believed. 

A  characteristic  anecdote  is  told  of  his  early  school  life. 
A  statute  of  the  foundation,  by  which  a  boy  who  had 
been  absent  more  than  a  certain  number  of  days  for- 
feited his  place  in  the  school,  was  about  to  be  revived. 
A  comrade  of  Benjamin's  was  running  dangerously  near 
the  limit,  and  was  supposed  to  be  unaware  of  the  declared 
intention  to  put  the  rule  in  force.  At  this  boy's  home 
in  some  far-lying  suburb,  the  bell  was  rung  late  at  night, 
and  a  small  figure  was  found  on  the  doorstep.  It  was 
little  Benjamin,  who  had  walked  for  many  miles  to 
warn  his  friend  of  the  danger  he  was  incurring. 

The   following    reminiscences  contributed  by  persons 

D  2 


36  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  n 

who  were  at  St.  Paul's  with  Jowett  will  be  read  with 
interest : — 

i.  The  Eight  Rev.  C.  R>.  Alford,  late  Bishop  of  Victoria, 
who  was  a  class-fellow  of  Jowett's,  writes  (July  4, 
1894):- 

'His  image  as  a  youth  is  still  before  me,  a  slim  weakly 
figure,  gentle  and  polished  in  manner,  keen  eyes,  very  intelli- 
gent countenance.  In  reading  and  construing  he  had  a  clear 
expressive  voice,  and  in  class  he  spoke  out  as  one  who  knew 
what  he  meant  to  say.  I  only  remember  Jowett  in  the  eighth, 
i.  e.  in  the  first  class  of  the  school  under  Dr.  Sleath.  I  think 
he  stood  second  boy,  and  was  much  associated  with  Arthur 
Shelly  Eddis,  the  captain  of  our  year.  Eddis  and  Jowett  had 
the  charge  of,  and  chiefly  occupied  together  the  School  Library, 
located  in  the  old  buildings,  between  the  High  Master's  house 
and  the  great  schoolroom.  They  seldom  appeared  in  school 
except  at  prayer-time  and  when  we  assembled  around  and 
before  the  table  of  the  High  Master  in  class.  Eddis  was 
Chancellor's  Medallist  of  his  year  (1839),  Fellow  of  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  Professor  in  Lincoln's  Inn,  and  Judge  at 
Clerkenwell  County  Court.  As  captain,  Eddis  always  took  the 
lead,  daily  reading  the  Latin  school  prayers  from  the  step  of 
the  dai's  on  which  the  High  Master's  chair  was  placed — 
Dr.  Sleath,  in  cap  and  gown,  standing  behind  him — a  figure 
of  great  presence  and  commanding  appearance. 

'.  .  .  I  can  call  to  mind  Jowett's  return  to  school  after  his 
successful  competition  for  the  Balliol  Scholarship.  We  boys 
held  up  our  heads  an  inch  or  two  higher  than  we  did  before, 
and  it  was  a  sight  worth  beholding  to  gaze  on  the  beaming 
countenance  of  our  dear  old  High  Master,  Dr.  Sleath,  whose 
frown  was  dreaded,  but  whose  smile  of  approval  and  encourage- 
ment, never  grudgingly  bestowed,  was  a  joy  and  coveted 
reward. 

'  I  remember  one  personal  circumstance  with  pleasure.  On 
my  wedding-day  (1841)  I  alighted  at  the  Great  Western  Eailway 
Station,  Paddington,  with  my  wife,  and  as  chance  would  have 
it,  as  I  got  out  of  the  carriage  at  the  station  Jowett  was  there  ! 


1817-1836]  At  St.  Paul's  School  37 

He  greeted  me  warmly,  was  introduced  to  my  wife,  and  as 
he  shook  hands  with  us  both  wished  us  all  happiness.  We 
travelled  by  the  same  train  to  Oxford.  This  was  the  last 
occasion  on  which  we  spoke  to  one  another.  Some  forty  years 
after,  I  saw  him  and  heard  him  say  a  few  words  at  an  "  Apposi- 
tion "  at  St.  Paul's  School,  West  Kensington.  Then  he  was 
an  elderly,  venerable  man  in  figure  and  feature  and  speech,  the 
Master  of  Balliol ;  but  still  he  reminded  me  much  of  old 
St.  Paul's  School  and  the  youthful  scholar  of  1836. ' 

2.  From  the  Rev.  John  B.  Brodrick,  Rector  of  Sneaton, 
near  "Whitby,  April  9,  1894: — 

'  There  was  so  much  difference  between  my  standing  and 
Jowett's  as  to  prevent  our  having  any  very  intimate  intercourse, 
and  the  higher  we  got  in  the  school  the  fewer  those  intimacies 
became.  My  recollection  of  him  at  Paul's  is  of  a  pretty -looking 
boy- youth  who  wore  a  perpetual  sort  of  green  sateen  which 
never  got,  in  my  time,  to  the  dignity  of  a  coat-tail,  but  stuck 
to  the  less  dignified  one  of  a  jacket.  He  never  associated  much 
with  anybody,  and  on  the  strength  of  his  looks  we  used  to  call 
him,  though  perhaps  not  to  his  knowledge,  "Miss  Jowett."  We 
used  to  put  him  up  to  say  curious  things  to  old  Sleath,  which 
would  certainly  not  lead  that  scholastic  divine  to  predicate 
anything  like  what  was  the  real  future  of  his  simple-minded 
pupil.  .  .  .  The  only  thing  in  the  least  memorable  that  I 
bear  in  mind  is  that  on  one  occasion  I,  along  with  another 
class  companion,  went  either  with  or  for  Jowett  to  that 
historical  spot,  Bolt  Court,  where  Jowett  Senior  was  then 
living,  and  the  door  was  opened  by  William  Cobbett,  who 
sported  a  tricolour  ribbon  in  his  button-hole,  which  then  meant 
a  little  more  than  it  would  do  now.  .  .  .' 

3.  From  Baron  C.  E.  Pollock,  May  18,  1894  :— 

'  I  joined  the  school  September  30,  1833,  at  the  age  of  nine. 
Jowett  was  then  in  the  highest  class,  the  eighth,  and  con- 
sequently a  monitor.  .  .  .  My  brother,  George  Pollock  (now 
Queen's  Eemembrancer),  remembers  going  with  Jowett  to  see 
his  father's  printing-press  in  Bolt  Court.  ...  I  can  myself 


38  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  n 

remember  Jowett  when  in  the  eighth  class,  a  very  young- 
looking  boy  with  round  face  and  bright  eyes,  retiring  in 
manner,  but  holding  his  own,  and  much  respected.  Barham 
and  my  brother  Robert  used  to  speak  of  him  as  "the  boy 
Jowett,"  and  made  fun  of  his  journeys  to  Oxford  outside  the 
coach  and  his  supposed  conversation  with  the  guard. 

'  On  one  occasion,  when  Jowett  was  in  the  seventh,  he  was 
struck  by  a  boy  bigger  than  himself  but  of  inferior  capacity. 
This  was  immediately  resented  by  his  other  school-fellows,  who 
treated  it  as  an  offence  and  thrashed  the  bigger  boy.' 

4.  From  the  Rev.  John  Couchman,  of  Thornby  Rectory, 
near  Rugby,  who  was  Jowett's  class-fellow: — 

'Concerning  Jowett's  school-days,  I  have  not  much  to  say. 
He  was  of  a  very  taciturn  and  gentle  disposition,  more  devoted 
to  books  than  to  play :  but  as  far  as  I  remember  his  quiet 
disposition  gained  him  many  friends  amongst  his  school-fellows 
and  no  enemies :  he  was  what  we  all  called  "  a  very  nice 
fellow,"  and  got  on  very  well  and  amicably  with  us  all.  .  .  . 
Dr.  Sleath  told  me  that  he  thought  Jowett  to  be  the  best  Latin 
scholar  he  had  ever  sent  to  College.  .  .  .  Personally  I  had 
always  a  great  regard  for  him.' 

Amongst  his  contemporaries  at  school,  in  the  eighth 
form,  were  the  late  Lord  Hannen;  Charles  C.  Roberts, 
of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  Assistant  Master  at 
St.  Paul's  ;  Arthur  Shelly  Eddis,  Trinity  College,  Cam- 
bridge, Judge  of  the  Clerkenwell  County  Court ;  Robert 
John  Pollock,  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  of  the  Madras 
Light  Cavalry,  and  afterwards  of  the  Inner  Temple  (who 
died  in  1853) ;  R.  H.  D.  Barham,  Rector  of  Lul worth, 
and  author  of  the  biography  of  his  father,  R.  H.  Barham 
('  Thomas  Ingoldsby ')  ;  C.  J.  Clay,  Printer  to  the  Univer- 
sity of  Cambridge.  This  list  makes  it  readily  understood 
why  Benjamin  Jowett,  when  head  of  the  school,  began 
to  turn  his  thoughts  to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 
But  the  suggestion  that  he  should  try  at  Balliol, 


1817-1836]          The  Balliol  Scholarship  39 

which  had  come  to  Mrs.  Jowett  in  the  way  already 
described J,  had  the  approval  of  Dr.  Sleath,  and  it  was 
no  doubt  the  more  readily  acted  on  from  the  fact  that 
John  Turner,  of  Bath,  who  had  been  at  Winchester 
School,  was  already  at  Oxford.  At  all  events  it  was 
expected  that  Turner  should  take  some  charge  of  his 
young  friend ;  and  as  the  latter  had  not  been  recently 
at  Bath,  and  might  have  grown  out  of  knowledge,  it 
was  arranged  that  when  he  met  the  coach,  John  should 
recognize  Benjamin  by  the  colour  of  his  tie  2. 

The  following  anecdote  connected  with  Jowett's  elec- 
tion to  the  Scholarship  is  given  in  the  words  of  the 
Rev.  Hay  S.  Escott 3,  who  was  a  witness  of  the  incident, 
having  gained  an  Exhibition  the  same  year : — 

'  On  the  morning  after  our  election  we  met  by  appointment 
in  the  Master's  dining-room  to  pay  him  a  formal  visit. 
Dr.  Jenkyns  had  not  yet  appeared,  and  Jowett  had  seated 
himself  on  a  chair  in  the  bay-window  overlooking  the  chapel 
quadrangle,  arrayed  in  academicals,  then  first  put  on  for  the 
purpose  of  Matriculation.  But,  alas  !  he  had  forgotten  that  the 
college  cap  was  only  intended  for  protection  out  of  doors,  and 
it  was  still  on  his  head  when  the  door  suddenly  opened, 
and  the  Master  with  his  usual  quick,  jerking  step  swung 
himself  into  the  room.  Then  apparently  startled,  and  inflamed 
with  real  or  simulated  passion,  he  attacked  without  mercy  the 
innocent  young  Scholar  for  so  flagrant  a  breach  of  the  primary 
laws  of  good  breeding.  "  Do  my  eyes  deceive  me,  or  do  I  see 
a  gentleman  in  my  dining-room  with  his  cap  on  ?  "  The  whole 
scene  was  most  painful,  and  the  impression  it  made  on  me  is 
indelible.  It  was  one  of  those  occasions  on  which  Dr.  Jenkyns 
showed  his  want  of  sympathy,  of  the  power  of  appreciating 
other  minds,  and  of  allowing  for  circumstances.  But  his  good 
feelings  quickly  came  to  his  aid,  and  he  commenced  a  more 

1  p.  18.  had  visited  him  not  long  before. 

2  John  Turner  became  a  parish  s  Rector  of   Kilve,   Somerset ; 
clergyman,    Vicar   of  Hennock,  late   Head   Master   of   Somerset 
Devon,  and  died  in  1858.    Jowett  College,  Bath. 


40  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  n 

friendly  and  complimentary  address,  by  the  half-jesting,  half- 
sarcastic  remark — "  I  suppose  it  was  the  novelty  of  the  bauble." 
These  were  the  ipsissima  verba  V 

A  welcome  glimpse  of  him  in  the  Christmas  vacation 
following  his  election  to  the  Scholarship,  and  his  entrance 
at  Balliol,  is  afforded  by  the  E,ev.  Henry  Holden, 
Rector  of  South  Luffenham,  who  was  then  a  Balliol 
Scholar  of  three  years'  standing.  Dr.  Holden  begins 
his  recollections  from  the  time  of  the  election.  He 

X 

says : — 

'  My  first  acquaintance  with  him  was  when  he  was  elected 
Scholar  at  the  usual  examination  in  November,  1835,  from 
St.  Paul's  School — a  school  at  that  time  not  of  very  high 
classical  repute,  but  which  has  since  gradually  risen  to  distinction 
inferior  to  none  amongst  our  greatest  schools.  I  well  remember 
introducing  myself,  on  the  evening  of  his  election,  to  the 
slightly  built,  curly-headed  lad,  who  seemed  the  last  candidate 
likely  to  gain  what  was  then  considered  the  blue  ribbon  of 
scholarship,  nearly  all  other  colleges  at  that  time  confining 
their  privileges  to  Counties  and  Founders'  kin.  The  acquain- 
tance thus  commenced  was  increased  during  the  subsequent 
winter  vacation,  when,  being  in  London,  I  frequently  visited 
him  at  his  lodgings  in  the  City  Road.  He  had  attended 
St.  Paul's  School  as  a  day-scholar,  being  one  of  the  153  Founda- 
tioners, and  remained  even  during  vacations  in  London,  to 
avoid  the  expense  of  long  journeys  to  a  distant  home. 
Dr.  Sleath  was  then  Head  Master,  and  it  was  by  his  advice 
that  he  was  sent  to  try  for  the  Scholarship.  All  that  I  then 
saw  of  him  bore  testimony  to  his  industry,  frugality,  and 
simplicity  of  character.  We  worked  together  frequently  during 
that  winter  vacation.  When  I  returned  to  Oxford  he  continued 

1  This  tale  is  confirmed,  with  in  W.  G.  Ward  and  the  Oxford 

some  slight  variations,  in  a  letter  Movement,  p.  441 :  'He  was  a  con- 

from  the  Rev.  H.  C.  Adams,  Vicar  siderable  actor,  and  would  put  on 

of  Shoreham,  and  late  Fellow  of  severe  looks  to  terrify  freshmen, 

Magdalen  College,  Oxford.     Cf.  but  was  really  kind-hearted  and 

Jowett's  own  remark  on  Jenkyns  indulgent  to  them.' 


1817-1836]  S/.    Paul's  41 

at  St.  Paul's  School,  and  I  saw  nothing  more  of  him  till  he  came 
into  residence  at  Balliol.' 

"When  in  December,  1835,  he  returned  to  London, 
bringing  with  him  the  '  blue  ribbon '  of  Oxford,  an 
honour  which  no  Pauline  had  at  that  time  won,  young 
Jowett  at  St.  Paul's  was  a  distinguished  figure.  There 
are  contemporaries  who  still  remember  how,  after  his 
return,  he  used  to  be  assailed  from  all  sides  whenever 
he  passed  among  the  younger  boys  in  school,  with  cries 
of  '  Give  us  a  construe,'  a  request  with  which  he  com- 
plied as  far  as  he  could 1.  Now  also  he  must  have  taken 
a  leading  place  in  the  little  debating  society  to  which 
he  belonged,  and  which  met  somewhere  about  St.  Paul's 
Churchyard  2. 

The  school  was  under  the  shadow  of  the  great  cathedral, 
and  one  lasting  impression,  which  may  be  with  con- 
fidence referred  to  this  early  period,  was  his  love  of 
classical  architecture,  and  in  particular  his  reverence  for 
Sir  Christopher  "Wren 3.  Nothing  delighted  him  more  in 
after  years  than  to  take  his  guests  to  the  Library  of  All 
Souls,  Oxford,  and  to  go  over  with  them  the  various 

1  G.  R.  Kingdon,  S.J.,  in  The  I  would  urge  my  petition  :  "  I  say 
Pauline,  1884  :  '  The  eighth  were  Jowett,  give  us  a  con.,  there's  a 
supposed  to  have  so  many  books  in  good  fellow !  "  Jowett  was  captain 
use  that  their  ownlockers  were  not  at  the  time.  He  was  always  too 
enough  for  them.  Consequently  good-natured  to  refuse,  and  with 
they  were  allowed  the  use  of  the  his  locker  open  would  translate 
unoccupied  ones  on  the  bottom  Valpy's  Delectus  for  me  "  straight 
bench  of  some  of  the  lower  forms,  off,"  to  my  great  satisfaction.' 
I  remember  when  I  was  in  the  2  The  Rev.  W.  Guillemard,  late 
second,  the  boys  on  the  bench  Rector  of  St.  Mary  the  Less,  Cam- 
just  above  the  bottom  used  to  take  bridge,  told  me  of  this  in  1880. 
advantage  of  a  monitor's  coming  — L.  C. 

down  to  his  locker,  and  coax  him  3  He  once  heard  Sydney  Smith 

to   translate  a  lesson  for  them,  preach  in  St.  Paul's.      See  Benja- 

I   can  almost  hear  myself  now,  min  Jowett,  by  L.  A.  Tollemache, 

when  stooping  under  the    desk  p.  14. 


42  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  n 

plans  for  the  rebuilding  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  copies 
of  which  are  there  preserved. 

He  very  rarely  made  any  reference  to  his  school  days, 
but  eagerly  embraced  opportunities  of  renewing  ac- 
quaintance with  old  Paulines,  and,  when  occasion  served, 
he  spoke  affectionately  of  those  that  were  gone.  In  the 
light  of  after  years  his  boyhood  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  regarded  by  him  as,  on  the  whole,  a  time  of  bright- 
ness or  of  enjoyment.  The  pleasures  which  it  had  for 
him  lay  chiefly  in  the  region  of  his  studies. 

The  spirit  of  self-culture,  of  loyalty  and  devotion, 
of  generous  and  manly  ambition,  mingled  with  a  pious 
aspiration  to  be  doing  good,  already  lay  warmly  at  his 
heart.  But  his  hold  upon  life  and  upon  the  outer 
world  was  weakest  at  the  first,  and  grew  steadily  with 
the  increase  of  his  years  and  the  widening  of  his 
opportunities. 

In  a  familiar  letter  of  1 86 1, he  writes,  with  a  humorous 
turn  which  hides  a  serious  meaning :  '  No  day  passes 
in  which  I  don't  feel  the  defects  of  early  education. 
I  was  never  taught  how  to  play  at  cards,  or  even  at 
billiards,  and  it  seems  too  late  to  repair  the  error  now. 
Do  you  think  I  could  learn  to  waltz  ?  ' 

Partly  no  doubt  from  the  circumstance  that  his  school- 
fellows mostly  went  to  Cambridge,  no  life-long  friendship 
seems  to  have  been  made  by  him  at  school. 

In  one  respect,  however,  the  system  at  St.  Paul's  was 
well  suited  to  prepare  the  cleverer  boys  for  making  their 
mark  in  after  life.  The  '  speeches '  on  '  Apposition 
Day '  were  so  managed  as  to  give  something  like  a  real 
training  in  elocution.  School  lessons  were  suspended  for 
the  rehearsals,  which  were  serious  things.  '  On  one 
occasion,'  says  an  old  Pauline1, '  during  the  delivery  of 
1  G.  R.  Kingdon,  S.J.,  in  The  Pauline  for  March,  1884. 


1817-1836]  Apposition  Day  43 

a  dialogue  from  Milton's  Samson  Agonistes,  the  boy  who 
personated  Harapha,  in  the  line 

"I  am  of  Gath,  men  call  me  Harapha," 

put  rather  too  much  emphasis  on  men.  Sleath  instantly 
thundered  out,  "  And  what  do  women  call  you  ?  "  I  need 
not  say  that  the  criticism  was  appreciated.' 

Young  Jowett' s  appearance  at  his  last  '  Apposition '  (i.  e 
Founder's)  '  Day '  is  thus  recorded  in  the  Times  of  May  6, 
1836:— 

'The  Apposition  of  the  Scholars  of  St.  Paul's  School  took 
place  yesterday.  We  had  the  misfortune  not  to  be  present 
at  the  early  part  of  the  proceedings,  which  commenced  with 
speeches  in  Greek,  Latin,  and  English,  in  commemoration 
of  the  founder,  by  Messrs.  Jowett,  Wright,  and  Jephson,  the 
three  senior  scholars.  Then  followed  the  prize  compositions, 
Her  ad  Emmaum  in  Latin  Hexameters,  and  Fatale  Jephthae 
Votum  in  Greek  Trimeter  Iambics,  both  by  Mr.  Jowett,  the 
senior  scholar.  .  .  .  We  may  here  remark  that  gesticulation 
appears  to  be  very  properly  more  encouraged  at  this  than  at 
other  public  schools,  and  under  the  guidance  of  excellent  taste, 
rarely,  if  ever,  is  ridiculous  or  degenerates  into  acting.  .  .  . 
The  closing  piece  was  highly  entertaining ;  it  was  a  scene  from 
the  Ranae  of  Aristophanes,  where  Bacchus  (Mr.  Jowett)  is 
alarmed  by  his  man  Xanthias  (Mr.  Harriott),  while  in  the 
Infernal  regions,  with  a  supposed  spectre.  .  .  .  The  comic 
distress  of  the  former  excited  much  laughter  even  amongst  that 
portion  of  the  audience  customarily  presumed  to  be  ignorant 
of  the  learned  languages.' 

All  these  distinctions  did  not  smooth  away  the  financial 
difficulties  of  his  entrance  at  Balliol.  It  was  usual  for 
the  head  boy  of  St.  Paul's  to  take  with  him  the  Campden 
Exhibition  of  £100  a  year  for  five  years  to  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge  ;  but  Jowett  was  debarred  from  this, 
and  also  from  other  Exhibitions  which  were  tenable 
at  any  College  in  either  University,  by  the  fact  that  he 


44  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett 

had  passed  his  twelfth  birthday  before  entering  the 
school l.  Under  these  circumstances  his  old  patrons  of 
the  Mercers'  Company  stepped  in,  and  on  July  14,  1836, 
Jowett  was  elected  to  one  of  Lady  North's  Exhibitions, 
and  at  the  same  date  a  small  sum  was  given  to  him 
by  the  Company  as  senior  scholar  of  St.  Paul's  School, 
on  his  going  to  College.  His  friends  at  St.  Paul's  be- 
thought themselves  of  a  further  expedient  for  rewarding 
him.  The  school  library  had  grown  to  considerable 
magnitude,  and  had  not  been  catalogued.  To  this  con- 
genial task  Jowett  was  appointed,  and  gained  for  it  an 
honorarium  of  100  guineas  from  the  Mercers'  Company, 
which  was  paid  to  him  in  1837.  Even  with  these 
additions  to  the  Balliol  Scholarship,  his  means  for  living 
at  Oxford  were  narrow  enough,  and  must  have  required 
the  strictest  economy 2. 

1  G.  R.  Kingdon,  S.J.,  in   The  2  '  On  February   10,  1837,  the 

Pauline,  1884  :  '  There  were  then  then    Surveyor- Accountant    laid 

two  Carnpden  Exhibitions  of  £100  before  the  Court  of  the  Mercers' 

and  £75,  the  holders  of  which  must  Company  copies  of  a  newly  printed 

go  to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  Catalogue  of  the  Library  of  the 

and  besides  these  as  many  others  School,  prepared  by  Mr.  Benjamin 

of  £50  per  annum  as  there  might  Jowett,  late  Senior  Scholar,  and 

be  deserving  candidates.     These  shortly  afterwards  a   present  of 

last  might  be  held  at  any  College  100  guineas  was  made  to  him  for 

of  either  University.     These  Ex-  the   care   and   attention  he  had 

hibitions,  in  my  time,  lasted  for  bestowed  in  forming  an  entirely 

five  years.  ...  In  order,  however,  new  Catalogue  of  the  Library  of 

to  be  eligible  for  them,  you  must  that  Establishment '  (Letter  from 

have  been  on  the  foundation,  i.e.  Mr.  John  Watney,  Secretary  of 

you  must  have  been  admitted  the  Mercers'  Company,  April  18, 
before  you  were  ten  years  old.' 


CHAPTER  III 

SCHOLAR   AND   BELLOW   OF   gALLIOL.       1836-1840 

(Aet.  19-23) 

EARLY  friendships  at  Oxford — The  Hertford  Latin  Scholarship 
— A  Balliol  undergraduate  sixty  years  since — Reminiscences  of 
surviving  contemporaries — The  Master,  Richard  Jenkyns,  and  the 
Tutors,  Tait  and  Scott — The  Balliol  Fellowship  won  by  the  under- 
graduate Scholar — Work  in  private  tuition — Death  of  Ellen  Jowett — 
Graduation — Letters  to  W.  A.  Greenhill. 

FT  was  the  common  practice  then  as  now  at  Oxford 
•*-  to  interpose  two  or  more  '  Grace  Terms '  between 
the  election  to  a  Scholarship  and  coming  into  residence. 
Accordingly  the  new  Scholar  of  Balliol  entered  as  a  fresh- 
man in  October,  1836,  being  then  nineteen  years  of  age. 
How  or  where  the  Summer  Vacation  had  been  spent  does 
not  appear,  except  that  it  seems  probable  that  part  of  it 
had  been  occupied  in  the  task  of  cataloguing  the  St.  Paul's 
School  library.  He  seems  to  have  remained  at  St.  Paul's 
until  July,  although  his  attendance  there  should  strictly 
have  ended  with  his  nineteenth  birthday,  April  15,  or  at 
latest  with  Apposition  Day. 

In  old  age  he  spoke  of  his  election  to  the  Scholarship 
as  the  happiest  event  of  his  life ;  and  his  entrance  on  that 
career  at  Oxford,  which  only  terminated  with  his  death, 


46  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  in 

cannot  fail  to  have  been  accompanied  with  a  strong 
feeling  of  enlargement  and  emancipation.  Yet  con- 
sidering the  combination  of  enterprise  and  caution,  of 
moral  intrepidity  with  constitutional  shyness,  of  eager 
interest  in  life  with  the  most  delicate  refinement  and 
sensitiveness,  which  was  inherent  in  his  nature,  one 
cannot  suppose  that  his  freshman's  term  at  the  University 
was  altogether  unclouded.  And  the  difficulties  of  be- 
ginning life  at  Oxford  were  sensibly  increased  for  him 
by  the  fact  that,  notwithstanding  the  Scholarship  and 
the  liberality  of  the  Mercers'  Company,  in  comparison 
with  the  public  school  men  amongst  whom  he  found 
himself,  he  was  decidedly  poor.  His  first  anxiety  was 
to  gain,  if  possible,  the  Hertford  University  Scholarship 
for  Latin,  and  for  this  purpose  he  felt  the  need  of  extra 
tuition.  An  unexpected  gift  of  £20  from  an  anonymous 
donor  enabled  him  to  read  with  Edward  Massie  of 
Wadham,  a  Shrewsbury  man  who  had  taken  the  Ireland  in 
1828,  and  was  known  to  be  a  successful  '  coach.'  Jowett 
won  the  Hertford,  to  the  disgust  of  his  competitors, 
who,  as  one  of  them l  says,  could  not  bear  to  be  beaten  by 
'  a  little  puny,  boyish,  chubby-faced  youth.'  This  was  in 
Lent  Term,  1837,  the  same  year  in  which  A.  P.  Stanley 
obtained  the  Ireland. 

Jowett's  first  success,  with  the  accompanying  circum- 
stances, produced  a  marked  effect  upon  him,  and  was  the 
beginning  of  the  earliest,  and  for  a  time  the  most  intimate, 
of  his  Oxford  friendships.  His  benefactor  proved  to  be 
"W.  A.  G-reenhill,  a  Rugby  man,  Stanley's  senior  by  about 
two  years,  who  was  at  this  time  studying  Medicine.  He 
afterwards  practised  as  a  physician  at  Oxford,  and  married 

1  Dr.  Frederick  H.  M.  Blaydes,      of  the  Hertford  in  the  following 
the  well-known  editor  of  Aristo-      year,  1838. 
phanes,  &c.    He  was  the  winner 


1836-1840]  Scholar  of  Balliol  47 

Miss  Ward,  a  favourite  niece  of  Dr.  Arnold.  He  has 
since  been  known  as  a  learned  writer  on  the  history  of 
Medicine.  The  following  letter,  written  while  the  giver 
was  unknown,  shows  the  feeling  with  which  the  gift 
was  received: — 

OXFORD,  January  31,  1837. 
DEAR  SIR, 

I  gratefully  avail  myself  of  your  wonderful  and  un- 
expected goodness.  I  do  so  with  the  less  hesitation  as  I  am 
persuaded  from  the  letter  with  which  it  was  accompanied 
that  it  was  really  meant.  It  will  give  me  the  opportunity 
of  obtaining  what  I  have  long  wished  for  and  could  not  other- 
wise have  had. 

May  I  venture  to  hope  that  I  shall  one  day  have  the 
pleasure  of  thanking  personally  my  unknown  benefactor. 
Should  I  fail  in  the  ensuing  contest  (and  I  feel  persuaded 
such  will  be  the  result)  I  trust  he  will  believe  that  this  want 
of  success  has  been  owing  to  no  deficiency  of  exertion  on  my 
part.  With  the  most  sincere  gratitude  for  your  kindness, 
and  the  manner  in  which  it  was  offered, 

Believe  me  to  remain,  my  dear  Sir, 

Ever  yours  most  truly  and  respectfully, 

B.  J. 

Should  I  not  hear  from  you  to  the  contrary,  I  will  leave 
a  letter  for  you  at  the  Post  Office  on  March  i,  directed  to 
X.  Y.  Z. 

May  God  bless  you  for  your  kindness  to  me.  I  never 
thought  much  about  religion  till  a  few  days  before  your  letter 
came,  [and]  it  has  left  an  impression  which  I  trust  I  shall 
never  forget. 

Many  years  afterwards  (in  1867),  when  Professor  Jo wett 
was  corresponding  with  Dr.  Greenhill  on  the  subject 
of  Plato's  Timaeus,  he  referred  with  characteristic  grati- 
tude to  this  long-past  kindness,  adding  that  he  had 


48  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  in 

himself  known  the  pleasure  of  helping  others  in  a  similar 
way. 

Before  proceeding  further  with  the  narrative,  some 
attempt  should  be  made  to  imagine  Balliol  College  as  it 
was  when  Jowett  entered  it.  The  Scholarships  had  been 
thrown  open  to  competition  in  1828,  Richard  Jenkyns 
having  then  been  Master  for  several  years.  This  was 
a  most  important  step,  for  which  G.  A.  Ogilvie,  one  of 
the  Tutors l,  was  largely  responsible.  The  list  of  Balliol 
Scholars,  previous  to  1836,  already  held  distinguished 
names,  and  the  Scotch  contingent,  supplied  chiefly  by 
the  Snell  foundation,  had  long  since  been  an  acknow- 
ledged source  of  strength.  Adam  Smith,  John  Lockhart, 
and  Sir  William  Hamilton,  not  to  mention  others,  were 
Snell  Exhibitioners  in  their  day.  Archibald  Campbell 
Tait,  who,  when  Jowett  began  residence,  had  recently 
been  appointed  Tutor,  was  both  a  Scholar  and  a  Snell 
Exhibitioner,  having  been  educated  at  the  Edinburgh 
Academy  and  Glasgow  University.  The  bond  of  friend- 
ship with  him,  thus  early  formed,  was  strained  by  later 
events,  but  never  broken. 

Another  of  the  Tutors  to  whom  Jowett  owed  much  as 
an  undergraduate,  was  Robert  Scott,  part  author  of  the 
famous  Lexicon,  who  in  1854  became  Master  of  Balliol. 
The  Mathematical  Lecturer  at  this  time  was  W.  G.  Ward 2, 
the  importance  of  whose  influence  over  Jowett  for  a  brief 
period  will  shortly  appear. 

Arthur  Penrhyn  Stanley  was  now  entering  on  his  third 
year  at  College,  and,  as  his  custom  was,  took  out  the 
junior  Scholar  from  time  to  time  for  a  walk  in  the 
afternoon.  On  the  first  of  these  occasions  he  is  said  to 
have  reported  that  he  never  met  with  such  a  disputatious 

1  Afterwards  Professor  of  Pas-  2  See  Life  of  Dean  Stanley,  vol.  i. 
toral  Theology.  p.  169,  letter  to  C.  J.  Vaughan. 


S-  .»      t 


FISHER'S  BUILDING  AND  END  OF  'RATS'  CASTLE,'  BALLIOL  COLLEGE 

Copied/rout  a  print  in  an  old  Oxford  Guide 


1836-1840]  Scholar  of  Balliol  49 

youth.  His  surprise  was  not  unnatural.  For  many  years 
after  this  Jowett's  appearance  was  juvenile  in  the  extreme, 
and  it  was  long  remembered  that  he  first  came  to  College 
in  a  round  jacket,  and  with  a  turned-down  collar.  This 
gave  to  his  animation  in  argument  the  greater  piquancy. 
What  subjects  were  discussed  between  the  two  young 
men,  whose  friendship  was  destined  to  be  so  closely 
cemented  afterwards,  we  can  only  guess  ;  but  it  is  difficult 
to  imagine  any  discussion  at  Oxford,  in  those  days,  that 
did  not  turn,  on  matters  theological.  The  subscription 
to  the  Articles ;  Dr.  Arnold's  influence ;  the  observance 
of  Sunday ;  J.  H.  Newman's  sermons ;  Clericalism  and 
Evangelicism ;  the  relation  of  Catholics  to  Protestants  ; 
the  admission  of  Jews  to  Parliament ;  the  Divinity 
Examination  at  London  University :  any  or  all  of  these 
subjects  afforded  ample  matter  for  controversy,  and  had 
more  fascination  for  young  Oxonians  than  those  eternal 
arguments  on  '  Foreknowledge,  "Will,  and  Fate  '  in  which 
Milton's  fallen  spirits  lose  themselves.  But  the  event 
which  had  most  interested  Stanley's  mind  in  1836  was 
the  appointment  of  Dr.  Hampden  to  the  Regius  Pro- 
fessorship of  Theology,  and  the  disputes  that  followed. 

Some  others  of  Jowett's  College  contemporaries  may 
be  here  enumerated.  Edward  Cardwell l  had  taken  his 
degree  in  1835  and  was  now  a  junior  Fellow.  John 
Moore  Capes,  who  afterwards  became  a  Roman  Catholic, 
was  a  graduate  of  the  same  year.  James  Lonsdale 2  had 
been  elected  Scholar  with  A.  P.  Stanley.  W.  C.  Lake  3, 
Benjamin  C.  Brodie 4,  E.  M.  Goulburn5,  and  Hay  S. 
Escott,  were  Jowett's  seniors  by  a  year ;  also  senior 

1  Afterwards  Lord  Cardwell.  4  Sir  Benjamin  C.  Brodie,  F.R.S., 

2  Rev.  James  Lonsdale.    See  his      Professor  of  Chemistry,  Oxford. 
Life  by  Duckworth.  5  Head  Master  of  Rugby ;  after- 

3  Afterwards  Dean  of  Durham.       wards  Dean  of  Norwich. 
VOL.  I.  E 


50  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  in 

to  him  were  John  "Wickens1,  Hugh  Pearson2,  Samuel 
Waldegrave  3,  E.  Hobhouse 4,  and  P.  S.  H.  Payne  (who 
died  in  1841).  His  immediate  contemporaries,  who  must 
have  been  freshmen  with  him,  were  F.  C.  Trower5, 
Stafford  H.  Northcote  G,  and  Reginald  Hobhouse 7.  His 
juniors  while  he  was  still  an  undergraduate  were  T.  H. 
Fairer8,  "W".  Rogers9,  Arthur  Hobhouse10,  Arthur  H. 
Clough  n,  Constantine  Prichard  125  Frederick  Temple  13, 
and  John  Duke  Coleridge ll.  Oxford  contemporaries 
not  at  Balliol,  who  became  distinguished  in  after  life, 
were  W.  F.  Donkin15  of  University  College,  Richard 
"W.  Church16  of  "Wadham,  James  Fraser17  of  Lincoln, 
James  A.  Froude 18  of  Oriel,  Richard  Congreve 19  of 
Wadham,  R.  R.  W.  Lingen 20  of  Trinity,  Henry  Halford 
Vaughan21  of  Christ  Church,  Bartholomew  Price22  of 
Pembroke,  Henry  W.  Acland23,  Christ  Church  and 
All  Souls,  John  Ruskin24,  Christ  Church,  and  George 

1  Vice  Chancellor  Wickens.  Bishop  of  Exeter,  1869  ;    Bishop 

2  Vicar  of  Sonning  and  Canon  of  London,  1885 ;  Archbishop  of 
of  Windsor.  Canterbury.  1896. 

3  Bishop  of  Carlisle.  14  Lord  Chief  Justice. 

4  Bishop  of  Nelson,  New  Zea-  15  Savilian    Professor   of  Geo- 
land.  metry. 

5  Bishop    of    Glasgow,    after-  16  Dean  of  St.  Paul's, 
wards  of  Gibraltar.  17  Bishop  of  Manchester. 

6  Lord  Iddesleigh.  u  The  Historian. 

7  Rector  of  St.  Ives  and  Arch-  19  The     Founder    of    English 
deacon  of  Bodmin.  Positivism. 

8  Lord  Farrer.  20  Lord  Lingen. 

9  Rector      of      St.      Botolph,  21  Professor  of  Modern  History, 
Bishopsgate  ;  Canon  of  St.  Paul's.  Oxford. 

10  Lord  Hobhouse.  22  Sedleian  Professor  of  Natural 

11  The  Poet.  Philosophy,  Master  of  Pembroke 

12  Fellow    of    Balliol,    son    of      College. 

James      Cowles      Prichard,     the  2S  Sir  Henry  W.  Acland,  Bart., 

author    of    Natural    History    of  M.D.,     Professor     of     Medicine, 

Man,  &c.  Oxford. 

13  Head     Master    of     Rugby ;  2*  The  well-known  Author. 


1836-1840]  Scholar  of  Balliol  51 

Butler 1  of  Exeter.  Mark  Pattison  2  of  Oriel,  afterwards 
Fellow  of  Lincoln,  was  already  a  young  graduate  when 
Jowett  came  into  residence  at  Balliol.  These  names  may 
suffice  to  indicate  to  those  who  recall  their  many  associa- 
tions, the  sort  of  milieu  into  which  the  reserved,  town-bred 
youth,  eager  and  yet  shrinking,  dutiful  and  adventurous, 
was  suddenly  plunged.  There  was  the  Eton  set,  brilliant 
and  careless,  full  of  gentlemanly  prejudices,  but  also  of 
boyish  fun.  There  were  the  Scotchmen,  in  striking  con- 
trast to  these,  not  less  noisy  perhaps,  but  plodding  and 
industrious,  and  bringing  with  them  more  of  metaphysics 
than  of  classical  learning.  And  there  were  the  Rugby 
men,  full  of  enthusiasm  for  Dr.  Arnold,  in  whose  un- 
popularity they  gladly  shared.  They  knew  more  of 
history  than  the  rest,  and  were  eager  to  break  a  lance  in 
theological  controversy.  That  was  already  filling  the  air 
to  the  detriment  of  other  studies  ;  and  grave  dispassionate 
elders  lamented  the  decline  of  scholarship  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Musgrave  and  Elmsley.  Young  Jowett  kept 
his  head,  we  may  be  sure,  but  while  proving  all  things, 
was  taking  impressions  from  all.  In  these  early  days  he 
was  eagerly  observant,  but  more  receptive  than  critical ; 
and  in  the  pursuit  of  scholarship,  which  was  his  main 
business,  he  made  rapid  progress,  though  he  did  not 
immediately  come  quite  to  the  front.  Indeed  he  was 
very  little  known  in  his  earlier  years  at  Balliol,  and  did 
not  see  much  of  any  one,  even  in  his  own  College,  except 
when  he  met  his  brother  Scholars  daily  in  Hall.  There 
was  always  a  good  deal  of  conversation  at  the  Scholars' 
table,  and  it  is  easy  to  imagine  how  the  novice,  after 
listening  long  in  silence,  would  strike  in  from  time  to 
time  with  some  unexpectedly  pertinent  remark.  His 

1  Canon  of  Winchester.  2  Rector  of  Lincoln  College. 

E  2 


52  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  in 

circumstances  forbade  his  entertaining  any  one,  and  he 
took  no  part  in  athletic  exercises,  although  on  rare 
occasions  he  indulged  himself  with  rowing  in  a  solitary 
skiff  on  the  river1.  He  took  long  walks,  was  fond  of 
bathing,  being  a  fair  swimmer,  and,  like  his  friend  A.  P. 
Stanley,  took  part  in  visiting  the  poor2.  By  degrees, 
however,  his  love  of  conversation  and  his  social  nature 
made  for  him  an  inner  circle  of  companionship  drawn 
from  all  the  various  sets  in  College,  in  which  the  figures 
of  Arthur  Hobhouse,  Benjamin  C.  Brodie,  H.  S.  Escott, 
E.  M.  Goulburn,  A.  H.  Clough,  Stafford  H.  Northcote,  and 
"W.  Rogers  are  still  clearly  discernible. 

In  picturing  the  life  of  an  Oxford  undergraduate  of 
sixty  years  since,  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that 
athletic  sports  were  less  developed,  and  there  were 
stronger  lines  of  demarcation  between  the  reading, 
the  boating,  and  the  hunting  men,  than  at  a  later 
time.  It  was  in  one  of  his  rare  sculling  excursions  that 
Jowett  first  came  in  contact  with  one  of  the  Bunseii 
family.  Henry  Bunsen  of  Oriel  3  happened  to  be  passing 
by  at  the  moment  when  Jowett's  skiff  was  upset  in  one 
of  the  lower  reaches  of  the  river,  and  he  always  spoke 
of  Bunsen  as  having  acted  the  part  of  the  Good  Samaritan 
on  that  occasion.  No  friendship  formed  in  Jowett's 
undergraduate  days  was  more  lasting  than  that  with 
"W.  Rogers,  a  boating  man  from  Eton. 

The  following  reminiscences  have  been  kindly  com- 
municated by  surviving  contemporaries.  I  take  first  the 
narrative  of  Lord  Hobhouse,  who  seems  to  have  been 

1  He  took   part  in   a   College  visited  a  poor  woman, 
sculling  race  in  June,  1838.     See  s  Eldest  son  of  Baron  Bunsen ; 
p.  71.  Vicar  of  Lilleshall,  Salop  ;  after- 

2  He  pointed  out  to  Dr.  Evelyn  wards  Rector  of  Donington.     He 
Abbott  a  house  in  the  neighbour-  was   educated  at   Rugby,   under 
hood  of  Hinksey,  where  he  had  Dr.  Arnold. 


1836-1840]  Lord  Hobhouse's  Reminiscences  53 

brought  into  specially  close  companionship  with  Jowett 
when  both  were  undergraduates  T : — 

'  I  went  to  reside  at  Balliol  in  Oct.  1837,  being  then  under 
eighteen  years  old  ;  and  I  made  acquaintance  with  Jowett, 
who  was  a  Scholar  of  the  House,  and  had  commenced  his 
residence  a  year  before.  I  do  not  remember  how  our  acquain- 
tance began,  but  it  must  have  been  very  soon  after  my  arrival ; 
probably  through  Northcote  (Lord  Iddesleigh),  an  old  Eton 
friend,  who  won  a  Scholarship  a  year  later  than  Jowett.  The 
Scholars  dined  at  a  separate  table  ;  and,  not  being  one,  I  missed 
that  stimulus  of  intimacy  which  is  got  by  companionship  at 
meals.  On  the  other  hand,  I  was  thrown  in  with  Jowett  in 
this  way.  The  top  floor  of  the  staircase  on  which  he  lived 
was  shared  between  his  rooms  and  those  of  a  man  of  his  own 
standing  named  Vaux.  This  Vaux  was  very  fond  of  taking 
to  his  rooms  some  congenial  soul,  or  it  might  be  more  than 
one,  to  imbibe  tea,  and  indulge  in  talk  de  omnibus  rebus.  He 
often  so  received  me  ;  and  occasionally  his  neighbour  Jowett 
would  come  in  ;  and,  again  occasionally,  Jowett  would  make  tea 
for  us,  or  for  me  alone,  in  his  own  territory  2. 

'  So  there  sprung  up,  quickly  as  is  the  case  with  lads, 
a  mutual  attraction,  and  such  intimacy  as  our  natures  and 

1  I  am  bound  to  insert  here  the  remarks  are  worthy  of  the  blessed 

words  in  which  Lord  Hobhouse  repose  of  the  waste-paper  basket, 

deprecates  the  publication  of  the  But  of  that  you,  who  are  writing 

contribution  so  kindly  made  by  the  biography,  are  the  best  judge, 

him  ;  although  I  think  the  reader  and  not  I.     So  I  will  throw  such 

will  agree  with  me  in  considering  light  on  your  subject  as  I  can.' 

his  doubts  unnecessary.    'Review-  —  L.  C. 

ing  my  intercourse  with  Jowett  2  His  poverty  was  so  evident, 

I    cannot    think   that    anything  that  A.  H.  scrupled  even  to  accept 

1  have  to  say  is  fit  for  publication  his   invitations    to   tea,   but    his 

or    for    more    than   casual   talk  doing    so    gave    B.    J.    manifest 

across  a  tea-table.     It  is  pleasant  pleasure.     '  It    was    difficult    to 

enough  for  me  to  conjure  up  old  draw  him  away  from  his  studies, 

pictures  shining  in  the  soft  light  but  when  once  you  had  him  out 

of  other  days ;  but  to  those  who  of  his  shell  he  was  pleasant  to 

have  not  that  light  the  case  is  talk  to.'    (From  conversation  with 

different.      I   conceive  that   my  Lord  Hobhouse.) — L.  C. 


54  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  in 

circumstances  permitted.  I  may  mention  in  this  connexion 
that  to  the  end  of  Vaux's  life,  through  good  fortune  and 
through  ill,  which  he  did  not  escape,  Jowett  never  forgot  the 
regard  for  him  which  existed  in  these  early  days. 

'  I  have  heard  men  say  that  one  of  Jowett's  foibles  was  to 
be  too  much  taken  by  successful  or  prominent  men.  I  am 
by  no  means  sure  of  that ;  but  I  am  sure  that  he  was  a  man 
of  rare  fidelity  in  his  attachments.  I  have  known  him  come 
to  like  adversaries  ;  I  have  never  known  him  turn  away  from 
or  forget  one  whom  he  has  called  his  friend. 

'  Jowett  never  joined  in  our  games ;  not  from  any  dislike, 
I  think,  for  he  always  took  due  interest  in  the  doings  of  the 
Balliol  boat,  in  which  I  then  pulled  an  oar.  The  only  exercise 
beyond  a  walk,  which  I  ever  enjoyed  with  him,  was  swimming1, 
to  which  we  were  both  addicted.  I  do  not  know,  but  believe, 
that  in  the  matter  of  games,  as  in  other  things,  such  as  chess 
and  entertainments,  the  necessity  of  a  rigid  economy  kept  him 
from  doing  what  was  done  by  others  in  easier  circumstances. 
That  his  means  were  narrow  before  he  won  a  Fellowship,  was 
evident ;  but  he  never  spoke  to  me  on  the  subject.  Indeed 
he  was  very  reticent  on  all  things  connected  with  his  personal 
life,  either  in  his  school  or  in  his  family.  It  was  natural  that, 
seeking  to  know  more  of  one  to  whom  I  was  attracted,  I  should 
invite  information  on  such  matters,  as  in  the  case  of  other 
friends.  But  beyond  the  fact  that  his  anchor  was  for  the 
present  cast  in  Bath,  I  learned  little.  He  would  give  but 
a  bare  answer  to  a  question  ;  and  of  course  I  soon  abstained 
from  broaching  subjects  on  which  he  was  not  communicative. 

'The  part  of  Jowett's  character  which  was  most  attractive 
to  me  was  his  perfect  simplicity,  truth,  and  originality.  Behind 
his  pretty,  girlish  looks,  quiet  voice,  and  gentle,  shy  manner, 
one  soon  found  that  there  lay  a  robust  masculine  under- 
standing, which  would  not  accept  commonplaces  as  true  or 
mere  authority  as  a  guide.  I  think  that  most  boys  of  eighteen 
are  apt  to  repeat  without  testing  what  they  have  been 

1  '  Jowett  took  readily  to  the      (From    conversation    with    Lord 
water  and  swam  well.    The  bath-      Hobhouse.) — L.  C. 
ing  was    at    Parson's    Pleasure.' 


1836-1840]  Lord  Hobhouse's  Reminiscences  55 

accustomed  to  hear,  to  fancy  that  what  they  see  in  print  must 
be  true,  and  to  accept  for  gospel  what  comes  to  them  accredited 
by  the  authorities  of  their  little  world.  Certainly  that  was 
the  case  with  me.  And  then  I  came  into  contact  with  one 
who,  not  flippant  nor  irreverent  nor  specially  fond  of  paradox, 
nor  specially  desirous  of  victory  in  a  discussion,  yet  insisted 
on  seeing  everything  with  his  own  eyes,  and  refused  to  utter 
a  proposition  until  his  own  judgement  was  sufficiently  in  accord 
with  it.  I  looked  upon  Jowett  as  the  freshest  and  most 
original  mind  I  had  come  across  ;  and  I  still  think  that  I  have 
never  held  converse  with  any  one  who  was  more  thoroughly 
original,  or  more  careful  to  say  only  what  he  made  his  own. 
Among  the  living  influences  which  compelled  me  to  think  and 
tended  to  invigorate  my  thoughts  in  the  plastic  age  between 
eighteen  and  twenty,  I  put  as  chiefest  the  lectures  of  Arch- 
bishop Tait  and  my  intercourse  with  Jowett.  Of  course  there 
were  many  others  playing  on  a  ripening  mind,  not  then  realized 
in  any  distinct  way,  and  now  impossible  to  disentangle  ;  but 
in  looking  back  and  trying  to  take  stock  of  my  earlier  life, 
I  have  always  attributed  the  most  powerful  effect  to  the  hard- 
headed  rationalism  of  these  two,  combined  with  their  steady 
love  of  truth  and  their  sympathetic  natures.  Probably  the 
parts  they  played  in  after  life  will  go  far  to  justify  my  estimate. 
Jowett's  fearless,  and  apparently  passionless,  tenacity  under 
the  storms  which,  at  least  during  the  first  half  of  his  working 
life,  blew  with  great  violence  round  the  heads  of  the  few 
who  dared  to  think  for  themselves  and  to  say  so  ;  his  absti- 
nence from  anything  like  triumph  when  he  made  his  position 
good — all  these  things  seem  to  me  the  natural  healthy  out- 
growth of  the  twenty-year-old  boy,  whose  resolute  questionings 
startled,  posed,  interested,  and  attracted  me. 

;I  have  just  called  his  tenacity  passionless,  and  his  victory 
one  without  triumph.  Of  course  in  the  immature  time  with 
which  I  deal,  qualities  of  this  sort  are  not  brought  out  or 
tested  by  circumstances.  But  one  of  his  characteristics  which 
impressed  me  even  then  was  his  calmness  when  opinions 
differed  ;  that  he  did  not,  as  other  men  are  wont,  get  heated 
or  argue  for  victory  in  a  wordy  war,  but  contended  only  when 
he  had  something  to  say  which  he  believed  to  be  true. 


56  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  in 

'  Not  that  he  was  wanting  in  feeling  ;  he  had  warm  feelings 
and  sympathies  ;  and  he  valued  sympathy  very  much.  Indeed 
I  don't  know  why  he  should  have  regarded  me  with  any 
favour  except  from  feeling  that  I  liked  him.  One  expression 
of  his  I  recall  because  it  touched  me  at  the  time,  and  has 
always  remained  with  me.  In  the  spring  of  1838  he  stood 
for  the  Ireland  Scholarship  and  was  defeated.  The  successful 
man,  if  I  rightly  recollect,  was  the  present  Lord  Lingen. 
Jowett  had  hoped  to  win  and  was  much  mortified.  Probably, 
besides  the  pleasure  of  success,  the  emolument  would  have 
been  a  great  help  to  him  \  I  went  to  his  rooms  and  sat  with 
him  for  some  time.  On  parting  he  thanked  me  warmly,  and 
added,  perhaps  with  a  little  bitterness,  "There  are  plenty  who 
come  when  one  wins,  but  you  are  a  losing  friend."  I  don't 
say  that  he  was  right,  but  such  was  the  man,  quickly  respon- 
sive to  sympathy,  hurt  if  he  thought  it  was  withheld.' 

Dr.  Holden,  whose  account  of  Jowett's  appearance 
among  the  candidates  for  the  Scholarship  has  been 
quoted  in  the  previous  chapter,  continues  his  narrative 
as  follows : — 

'  As  I  was  three  years  his  senior  we  did  not  attend  the  same 
College  lectures,  and  consequently  did  not  regularly  meet, 
except  at  the  Scholars'  dining  table  in  Hall.  But  there  I  can 
well  remember  his  quiet,  unassuming  manner,  when  the  elder 
and  more  advanced  Scholars  led  the  conversation,  and  some- 
times laid  down  the  law  for  the  juniors  in  politics  or  theology, 
subjects,  at  that  stirring  time,  very  warmly  discussed  in 
Oxford.  .  .  We  little  thought  that  the  retiring,  unobtrusive 
young  Pauline  was  about  to  develop  into  a  Hertford  University 
Scholar  in  the  following  spring  (1837),  and  in  the  year  after 
that  (November,  1838),  while  still  an  undergraduate,  to  be 
elected  over  the  heads  of  all  the  senior  Balliol  Scholars  and 
a  score  of  others,  First  Class  men  from  other  Colleges,  to  the 
high  distinction  of  a  Balliol  Fellowship.' 

1  '  He  was  much  disappointed  also  greatly  disappointed  at  miss- 
when  he  found  that  the  Hertford  ing  the  Ireland.'  (From  conversa- 
Scholarship  which  he  had  gained  tion  with  Lord  Hobhouse.) — L.  C. 
was  only  for  one  year,  and  he  was 


1836-1840]        Balliol  Sixty   Years  since  57 

The  following  recollections  of  the  Rev.  Hay  S.  Escott 
may  be  compared  with  the  preceding.  His  account  of 
the  teaching  at  Balliol  about  this  time  is  especially 
valuable  : — 

'At  the  period  of  Jowett's  election  the  undergraduates  of 
the  College  numbered  about  eighty ;  but  this  small  number 
had  in  it  a  very  large  amount  of  intellectual  power  and  energy 
of  life.  It  was  rather  sharply  divided  into  sets,  and  even 
at  the  tables  in  Hall,  open  to  all,  this  division  was  generally 
preserved.  But  still  the  borderers  in  each  set  were  more  or 
less  also  members  of  the  adjoining  set,  and  a  man  might  have 
friends  in  other  sets  than  his  own.  But  it  was  the  stirring 
activity  of  the  College  which  most  struck  the  new  members 
as  they  joined  it.  Of  course  in  this  vigorous  life  the  Scholars 
took  the  lead  ;  but  it  was  not  confined  to  them,  and  the 
presence  of  such  men,  so  intellectual  and  so  studious  as 
Lonsdale,  Stanley,  Goulburn,  and  Lake,  may  well  be  supposed 
to  have  kindled  and  stimulated  many  minds  of  less  con- 
spicuous power.  But  much  was  also  due  to  the  authorities 
of  the  College.  In  Dr.  E.  Jenkyns1  (afterwards  Dean  of 
Wells)  it  had  a  Master,  according  to  his  light,  thoroughly 
devoted  to  its  interest.  He  was  not  a  man  of  a  great  and 
large  mind — and  width  of  thought  was  neither  cultivated  nor 
affected  in  his  day — but  he  was  eminently  practical,  and 
possessed  of  shrewd  common  sense,  though  deficient  in 
delicacy  of  touch  when  handling  minds  more  complex  and 
more  sensitive  than  his  own.  His  dignity  may  have  been 
somewhat  pompous,  and  his  energy  bustling,  but  he  honestly 
exerted  all  his  powers  for  the  improvement  of  the  College, 
considering  no  part  of  its  machinery  beneath  his  notice  ;  and 
the  result  of  his  exertions  was  seen  in  the  character  of  the 
men  he  gathered  round  him,  first  as  Scholars  or  Commoners, 
then  as  Fellows  and  Tutors,  by  whose  agency  the  prestige 
of  Balliol  was  so  rapidly  and  greatly  raised.  At  the  time 
of  which  we  write,  Moberly  had  just  left  Oxford  to  become 
Head  Master  of  Winchester,  and  afterwards  Bishop  of  Salisbury. 

1  See  Oakeleyi's  'Balliol  under  Dr.  Jenkyns,'  in  Reminiscences  of 
Oxford,  Oxford  Historical  Society,  1892. 


58  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  in 

The  Classical  Tutors  were  Oakeley,  Chapman,  Tait,  and  imme- 
diately after  (in  the  Lent  Term  of  1836)  Scott,  and  the 
Mathematical  Lecturer  was  Ward,  of  the  Ideal.  Oakeley, 
an  excellent  man,  but  speculative  and  dreamy,  is  more  remem- 
bered as  Catechetical  Lecturer  than  as  Tutor,  though  his 
lectures  on  Lucretius  were  highly  spoken  of.  Chapman — 
a  truly  good  man,  full  of  kindness  and  gentleness — usually 
took  the  lectures  to  freshmen,  and  the  more  elementary  part 
of  the  work,  dividing  the  Divinity  lectures  with  the  other 
Tutors.  But  the  nerve  and  backbone  of  the  teaching  lay  with 
Tait  and  Scott— and  with  the  former  even  more  than  with 
the  latter.  Of  Tait,  tried  and  approved  as  he  afterwards  was 
in  the  highest  position,  it  may  seem  superfluous  to  speak. 
But  in  enumerating  the  influences  to  which  Balliol  under- 
graduates were  then  subject,  it  is  important  to  notice  the 
impression  made  by  him,  as  we  know,  on  some  at  least  of 
his  pupils.  There  was  in  him  a  charm — a  union,  perhaps, 
of  manliness  and  kindness,  which  won  for  him  the  affection 
and  respect  of  the  more  susceptible.  He  seemed  to  under- 
stand character,  and  to  deal  with  the  individual  less  according 
to  any  trifling  occasional  error,  than  according  to  what  he 
knew  to  be  his  main  purpose  and  aim.  He  had  that  dignity 
which  was  natural  to  his  talents  and  his  official  position, 
but  because  it  was  natural,  unstudied,  and  unassumed,  he  could 
exchange  it  for  perfect  equality  with  an  undergraduate  in 
social  intercourse.  Then,  as  a  Lecturer,  he  had  the  remarkable 
gift  of  clearing  up  obscurities,  and  of  leaving  some  definite 
idea  in  the  minds  of  his  pupils  where  all  had  appeared  hope- 
lessly confused.  He  could  take  up  some  intricate  passage, 
over  which  an  inexperienced  translator  was  sorely  perplexed, 
and  at  once,  apparently  without  effort,  elicit  a  satisfactory 
meaning  and  produce  it  in  idiomatic  English. 

'Scott  had  not  these  gifts.  Truly  good  and  kind,  and  in 
pure  scholarship  immeasurably  in  advance  of  Tait,  his  learned 
and  careful  lectures  left  comparatively  little  impression  on 
the  mind.  His  manner  did  not  commend  him,  and  he  was 
deficient  in  tact,  and  in  those  qualities,  so  conspicuous  in  Tait, 
which  give  influence  over  others  and  call  forth  affection  and 
respect.  Yet  to  those  intimate  with  him  he  was,  we  believe, 


1836-1840]        Balliol  Sixty  Years  since  59 

as  lovable  as  he  was  talented  ;  and  in  young  Jowett — fonder 
then  of  the  literature  than  of  the  philosophy  of  Greece — he 
had  a  pupil  after  his  own  heart,  whose  accurate  scholarship 
he  could  at  once  admire  and  enrich  \ 

'  Besides  those  already  mentioned,  a  senior  Fellow  of  the 
name  of  Carr2  occasionally  looked  over  the  weekly  Essay, 
dividing  the  work  with  the  Master.  For  the  "Essay  "  was  then 
in  existence,  written  alternate  weeks  in  English  and  Latin.  .  .  . 
At  times  a  copy  of  English  verses  was  accepted  instead  of  an 
Essay.  .  .  .  And  as  the  final  schools  drew  near,  it  was  allowed 
to  substitute  for  original  composition  a  translation  of  a  passage 
of  English  into  Latin  prose.' 

With  reference  to  the  same  period  the  Eev.  John  L. 
Hoskyns,  Rector  of  Aston  Tirrold,  writes : — 

'I  was  never  intimate  with  Jowett  when  at  Balliol.  He 
was  a  shy,  retiring  student,  quite  a  recluse,  and  I  was  not 
one  of  the  magic  circle  of  the  Scholars  and  their  immediate 
friends. 

' .  .  .  But  I  can  never  forget  the  deep  impression  that  the 
general  aspect  of  things  in  College  made  upon  me.  The  scene 
in  Chapel,  Hall,  Lecture  Boom;  the  countenances  of  the 
men — of  Tait,  Scott,  Oakeley,  Chapman,  Ward  ;  the  Scholars' 
table,  and  high  table ;  the  twos  and  twos  going  out  for 
their  constitutionals,  live  fresh  in  my  memory  after  nearly 
sixty  years.  It  was  a  marvellous  time,  and  a  most  interesting 
set  of  men.' 

1  In  his  reminiscences   (W.  G.  think   the   Dean   of    Eochester's 

Ward,    Sfc.,   p.     115),    Professor  Lectures  on  Niebuhr  first  aroused 

Jowett  says  :    '  I  must  not  forget  in   my   mind   doubt    about    the 

the  late  Dean  of  Rochester,  after-  Gospels,  and  that  the  Archbishop 

wards  Master  of  the  College,  u~ho  of    Canterbury  first    aroused  in 

was  very  kind  to  me  in  early  life.'  me  the  desire    to  read  German 

The  lectures  of  both  these  distin-  theology.' 

guished  men  had  effects  for  their  2  See  W.  G.  Ward,  $c.,  loc.  cit. 

youthful  listener  which  they  were  The  Rev.  John  Carr,  afterwards 

far  from  contemplating.  He  wrote  Rector     of     Brattleby    and     an 

as  follows  in   one    of  the   note-  Honorary  Canon  of  Lincoln. 
books,  dated   October,   1875 :    '  I 


60  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  in 

'  The  twos  and  twos  going  out  for  their  constitutionals,' 
recall  a  feature  almost  unknown  to  a  more  athletic 
generation,  the  '  long  walk  with  a  friend,'  which  Jowett 
has  often  recommended  as  a  recipe  for  low  spirits  l. 

His  failure  for  the  Ireland  Scholarship  in  1838  may 
have  been  partly  due  to  grief  or  anxiety  for  his  sister 
Agnes,  a  year  younger  than  himself,  who  died  about  this 
time.  In  the  same  Term,  however,  he  again  surprised 
his  friends,  by  winning  the  Powell  Prize  at  Balliol,  then 
awarded  for  proficiency  in  English  literature.  His  father 
wrote  as  follows  to  Mrs.  Irwin  : — 

'  During  the  present  term,  Benjamin  has  been  trying  for  the 
Powell  Prize  at  Balliol,  for  English  Composition.  I  wondered 
very  much  at  his  venturing,  as  it  was  quite  out  of  his  line — 
at  least,  so  I  should  have  concluded.  We  knew  nothing  about 
it  till  he  had  obtained  it.  ...  We  were  glad  to  find  his 
English  had  been  respectable  enough  to  carry  him  through.' 

A  greater  and  more  joyful  surprise  was  in  reserve. 
By  a  statute  of  the  College  the  Balliol  Fellowships  were 
open  to  all  Bachelors  of  Arts  of  the  University  and  to 
Scholars  of  Balliol.  On  one  previous  occasion,  it  was 
believed,  an  undergraduate  Scholar  had  been  elected. 
In  November,  1838,  there  were  four  vacancies — an  un- 
precedented number — and  Jowett  was  urged  by  some  of 
his  companions,  Goulburn  in  particular,  and  it  is  said 
also  by  his  Tutor,  Robert  Scott,  to  try  his  luck. 

The  biography  of  Dean  Stanley  has  thrown  a  curious 
light  on  the  conditions  of  election  to  a  Balliol  Fellowship 
in  those  days.  Arthur  Stanley  was  induced  to  try  for 
a  Fellowship  at  University  College  in  July,  1838,  because 
his  '  supposed  theological  opinions '  had  rendered  his 

1  M.  Arnold's  Scholar  Gipsy  and  this  familiar  habit.  Cf.  Letters  of 
Thyrsis  enshrine  reminiscences  of  Matthew  Arnold,  vol.  i.  pp.  38,  191. 


1836-1840]  The  Balliol  Fellowship  61 

election  at  Balliol  in  November  very  improbable x ! 
Amidst  the  searchings  of  heart  which  he  went  through 
before  taking  that  decisive  step,  the  last  thing  to  occur 
to  his  mind  would  be,  that  in  changing  his  College  he 
would  be  leaving  the  coast  clear  for  the  admission  of  his 
younger  friend.  Yet  so  it  was  ;  and  we  may  safely  infer 
that  Jowett  had  not  as  yet  fallen  under  suspicion 
either  for  liberal  or  Tractarian  sympathies.  In  point 
of  fact,  as  appears  from  the  letters  to  W.  A.  Greenhill, 
while  Evangelical  prepossessions  had  been  to  a  great 
extent  already  discarded,  he  was  looking  keenly  round 
him  with  a  suspense  of  judgement  very  uncommon  in 
one  so  young. 

The  circumstances  of  his  election  may  best  be  told  in 
Dr.  Holden's  words  :— 

'  As  this  is  an  achievement  only  once  before  -,  I  believe, 
recorded  in  the  annals  of  Balliol,  some  particulars  may  be 
interesting,  especially  as  coming  from  one  who  was  himself 
a  candidate.  Four  vacant  Fellowships  were  to  be  filled  up 
by  examination  ;  all  B.A's  were  eligible.  The  undergraduate 
Scholars  of  Balliol  had  also  the  peculiar  privilege  of  being 
eligible,  as  the  Master  of  the  College,  Dr.  Jenkyns,  used  some- 
times to  remind  them.  It  was  current  at  the  time  that  the 
Eev.  Eobert  Scott,  afterwards  Master  of  the  College  for  six- 
teen years,  and  who  had  himself  been  elected  Fellow  from 
Christ  Church  just  two  years  before,  had  persuaded  the  young 
Hertford  Scholar,  the  most  promising  pupil  in  his  lecture 
room,  to  avail  himself  of  this  privilege  and  to  offer  himself 
as  a  candidate  for  one  of  the  four  vacant  Fellowships  3.  It  is 

1  Stanley's  Life,  vol.  i.  p.  195.  nor  Oakeley  had  as  yet  become 

Among  the  candidates  was  Mark  known  as  followers  of  Newman. 
Pattison  :  see  his  Memoirs,  p.  177.          2  In  the  case  of  Jenkyns  him- 

The  Master,  Jenkyns,  was  a  stern  self  (so  tradition  says), 
foe  to  innovations ;  Tait's  ante-          s  A  contemporary  letter  names 

cedents  were  not  Anglican  ;  Scott  E.  M.  Goulburn  and  John  Turner 

and   Ward   were    not   originally  as    '  the  persons  who  with  great 

Balliol  men ;  and  neither  Ward  difficulty    induced    him    to    en- 


62  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  in 

said  also  that  when  speaking  of  this  pupil  to  his  brother 
electors,  he  often  used  the  words  non  res  scd  spes  (promise  not 
performance)  \ 

Jowett  was  out  of  College  when  the  result  was 
declared.  The  names  had  been  read  out  in  Chapel,  and 
the  Master  and  Fellows  were  waiting  to  confirm  the 
election.  Jowett  was  not  forthcoming.  Men  rushed  to 
his  rooms  and  the  rooms  of  his  friends.  He  was  not  to 
be  found.  "W.  Jenkins,  the  Blundell  Scholar 2,  by  whom 
this  incident  is  told,  '  chanced  to  be  going  out  of  College, 
and  when  the  gate  was  opened  ran  full  tilt  against  him.' 
'  Jowett,'  he  exclaimed,  '  you  are  elected.'  '  Nonsense/  was 
the  answer.  '  You  are  elected,  they  are  waiting  for  you 
in  the  Chapel.'  Even  then  he  could  hardly  be  persuaded 
— till  on  his  entering  the  gate  other  friends  confirmed 
the  tidings. 

The  spirit  in  which  Jowett  took  his  success  appears 
from  the  letter  which  he  wrote  to  his  father  at  the 
time.  It  has  been  preserved  in  a  long  epistle  of 
Mr.  Jowett's  to  Mrs.  Irwin  in  Australia,  to  whom  he 
confides  what  was  probably  hidden  from  those  more 
nearly  concerned,  his  exultant  pride  and  delight  in  the 
success  of  his  son,  and  the  ambitious  dreams  which  it 
awakened  in  him ;  but  also  his  fear  of  spiritual  dangers 
which  this  might  involve  to  Benjamin.  There  is  no 
trace,  as  yet,  of  any  constraint  in  the  intercourse  between 
the  father  and  the  son. 

BALLIOL  COLLEGE,  Friday  Morning. 
MY  DEAREST  FATHER, 

You  will  be  amazed  and  delighted  to  hear  that  I  have 
been  elected  a  Fellow  of  Balliol.     There  were  four  vacancies, 

roll  his  name   among  the   can-  his  colleague  in  the  work  of  Greek 

didates.'  lexicography.    Liddellthen heard 

1  Immediately  after  the  elec-  of  Jowett  for  the  first  time, 
tion  Scott  reported  the  fact  to          2  Late  Rector  of  Fillingham. 


1836-1840]          The  Balliol  Fellowship  63 

and  the  four  successful  candidates  are  Woollcombe  of  Oriel, 
Lonsdale,  Lake,  and  myself.  The  whole  number  of  candidates 
was  twenty-nine  ;  of  whom  about  eighteen  had  taken  a  First 
Class.  I  can  never  be  sufficiently  thankful  to  Providence  for 
giving  me  the  ability  to  obtain  it,  or  for  putting  it  into  their 
minds  to  give  it  me.  The  expenses  of  getting  in  here  are 
about  £'35.  What  the  value  of  the  Fellowship  is  during  the 
probationary  year  I  do  not  know,  probably  about  £60  a  year, 
and  afterwards  nearly  £200.  Scott  (one  of  the  Tutors)  has, 
with  his  usual  kindness,  advanced  me  the  money  of  his  own 
accord.  If  repaid  in  a  month  it  will  be  sufficient.  Pray  write 
to  me  by  return  of  post,  as  your  joy  at  my  success  is  half  the 
joy  of  having  succeeded. 

I  am  sorry  to  think  of  the  unsuccessful  candidates.  One 
man  whom  they  rejected,  Wickens,  is  probably  the  ablest  man 
in  the  University,  and  I  should  think  facile  princeps  in  the 
examination.  The  Master  confesses  that  the  only  ground  for 
it  was  his  irregularity,  not  in  moral  conduct  but  in  matters 
of  discipline,  when  an  undergraduate  '.  For  Holden,  whom 
you  remember,  I  am  also  exceedingly  sorry  ;  he  wrote  a  most 
affecting  letter  to  Wickens  which  the  latter  showed  ine  this 
morning.  He  said  he  could  not  but  feel  being  beaten  by  one 
to  whom  he  had  been  in  the  stead  of  a  Tutor,  '  the  old  man 
beaten  by  the  boy.'  Street's  brother  is  another  of  the  rejected 
candidates.  I  fear  I  must  conclude,  as  I  am  engaged  for  a  walk 

with  Massie,  &c.  &c. 

Believe  me, 

Yours  affectionately, 

B.  JOWETT. 

PS.  I  should  have  written  last  night,  but  was  really  unable. 
A  few  lines  to  Mamma  I  scribbled  off,  but  was  sent  for  before 


1  Dr.    Richard   Congreve,   who  quoted     repartee  :—Dr 

knew  Wickens  '  at  home,'  tells  me  '  Mr.  Wickens,  I  never  stand  at 

that  the  Master  said  to  the  disap-  my  window,  but  I  see  you  passing.1 

pointed  candidate,  'Mr.  Wickens,  Wickens.   '  Indeed,  Master,  I  never 

we  have  elected  in  preference  to  pass  but  I  see  you  standing  at  the 

you  —  a  little  child.'     Wickens  is  window.' 
the  accredited  author  of  the  often- 


64  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  in 

I  had  finished  them.     Remember  me  to  Mr.  Turner,  Johannes, 
Aunt  Courthope,  Uncle,  and  all  others. 

That  his  letter  to  his  mother  should  have  remained 
unfinished  is  not  wonderful,  considering  the  excitement 
which  his  election  had  caused  amongst  his  comrades. 
This  is  recorded  in  a  letter  from  James  Sandham, 
Commoner  of  St.  John's  (also  transcribed  by  the  glad 
father)  :— 

'Nothing  has  been  talked  about  here  so  much  for  a  long 
time.  It  is  thought  to  be,  as  it  is,  a  most  wonderful  achieve- 
ment. " Little  Jowett"  was  nearly  pulled  to  pieces  when  his 
success  was  known  ;  one  man  shaking  his  hand  with  all  his 
might  and  two  or  three  others  contending  for  the  other,  till  at 
last,  being  hoisted  above  their  heads,  he  was  carried  in  triumph 
round  the  quadrangle  V 

When  Jowett  was  Vice-Chancellor,  one  of  his  con- 
temporaries whom  he  happened  to  be  entertaining  at 
luncheon  said,  referring  to  this  election, '  I  then  thought 
you  four  the  happiest  people  going.'  '  So  we  were,'  said 
the  Master  in  a  cheerful  tone. 

A  word  may  be  added  here  a  propos  of  '  little  Jowett.' 
The  undergraduates  of  his  own  time  seem  to  have  shared 
this  impression  with  those  who  twenty  years  afterwards 
loved  to  talk  of  'little  Benjamin  their  ruler.'  Yet  it 
was  only  partly  justified.  Jowett  was  not  'little'  in  the 
sense  in  which  Dean  Stanley  and  Dean  Johnson  of  AVells 
were  little  men.  He  was  really  middle-sized,  with  rather 
sloping  shoulders,  and  a  chest  not  broad  but  deep.  His 
boyish  countenance,  like  Milton's, 

'Deceiving  the  truth 
That  he  to  manhood  was  arrived  so  near/ 

1  Cf.  Mr.  L.  A.  Tollemache,  as  high  as  he  could,  and  he  was 
Benjamin  Jowett,  p.  43  :  '  He  at  carried  round  the  quadrangle  on 
once  testified  his  joy  by  leaping  the  shoulders  of  his  friends.' 


1836-1840]  Graduation  65 

his  delicate  complexion,  high-pitched  voice,  finely  taper- 
ing hands,  and  small  well-moulded  feet,  contributed  to 
strengthen  the  illusion. 

By  a  custom  which  prevailed  for  some  time  after 
Jowett's  election,  the  lessons  in  Chapel  were  read  by 
the  two  junior  Fellows,  and  the  undergraduates  were 
interested  and  perhaps  amused  to  see  this  function 
assumed  by  one  of  themselves  1. 

The  Long  Vacation  of  1839  began  sadly.  Much  of 
it  was  spent  at  home.  His  sister  Ellen,  who  had  long 
been  in  failing  health,  died  at  Tenby  on  July  i  in  that 
year.  Jowett's  grief  was  silent  but  very  deep.  He  wrote 
of  it  at  the  time  to  his  friend  Greenhill ;  and  in  more 
than  one  letter  written  during  the  last  years  of  life  he 
spoke  tenderly  of  those  of  his  family  whom  he  had 
lost  as  being  never  absent  from  his  thoughts. 

The  name  of  Benjamin  Jowett  appears  in  the  First 
Class  in  Literis  Humanioribus,  Michaelmas  Term,  1839,  in 
the  same  list  with  Stafford  H.  Northcote  of  Balliol,  and 
James  Fraser  and  "William  Kay,  both  of  Lincoln  College. 

Before  taking  his  degree  he  had  engaged  in  private 
tuition,  and  among  his  first  pupils — not  counting  his 
brothers  Alfred  and  "William  Jowett,  whom  he  had 
tutored  in  the  Long  Vacation  of  1838 — were  T.  H.  Farrer 
of  Balliol2,  who  took  honours  in  Easter  Term,  1840,  and 
his  brother  Oliver,  who  appeared  in  the  same  Class  List. 

Lord  Farrer's  reminiscences  contain  the  best  record  of 
the  impression  which  Jowett  produced  on  others  at  this 
time,  and  may  fitly  conclude  the  present  chapter : — 

1  W.  L.  Newman  and  Charles  to   the    Fellowship.    The    Scho- 

S.  C.  Bowen  (Lord  Bowen)  are  the  lars'  privilege  was  abolished  in 

only-undergraduate  Scholars  who,  1857. 
since  Jowett,  have  been  elected          2  Lord  Farrer. 

VOL.  I.  F 


66  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  in 

'  My  first  acquaintance  with  Jowett  was  as  an  undergraduate. 
He  gained  the  Balliol  Scholarship  in  1835,  and  I  went  up  to 
Balliol  after  Easter  in  1837.  His  youthful  person,  his  round 
hairless  face,  which  in  later  years  made  that  mother  of  nick- 
names, Mrs.  Grote,  call  him  "the  cherub1";  his  low  shoes 
and  white  stockings  ;  his  brisk,  tripping,  almost  childish  gait ; 
made  him  a  noticeable  figure  in  Balliol  quad  ;  and  they  are 
still  present  to  me  as  a  vivid  image  of  what  he  was  in  early 
youth,  and  the  more  so  since  the  characteristic  features  of  that 
image  remained  traceable  in  him  to  the  end.  He  did  not 
at  that  time,  I  think,  give  any  promise  of  the  power  which 
he  afterwards  became.  I  did  not  see  much  of  him  beyond 
an  occasional  walk  together,  for  he  joined  in  no  games  ;  and 
though  never  an  ascetic,  or  absorbed,  as  Clough  was,  in  the 
theological  mists  of  that  polemical  time,  he  was  absolutely 
devoid  of  athletic  propensities,  and  was  I  believe  too  poor 
then  to  indulge  in  the  hospitality  which  in  later  years  was 
so  great  a  pleasure  to  him  and  to  his  friends.  To  him,  to 
Brodie,  to  Hugh  Pearson,  and  one  or  two  others,  I  owed 
a  mental  stimulus  which  was  not  to  be  found  in  the  general 
healthy,  but  not  intellectual,  society  of  the  Eton  and  Harrow 
men  with  whom  I  mostly  lived.  Towards  the  end  of  my  time 
at  Oxford,  I  lost  the  good  coach — Elder — with  whom  I  was 
reading  for  my  degree,  and  betook  me  to  two  Balliol  men 
equally  kind,  and  perhaps  equally  well-read,  but  very  different 
in  their  effects  on  a  pupil's  mind.  One,  who  shall  be  name- 
less, made  Aristotle's  Logic,  as  unintelligible  to  me  as  confusion 
of  thought  in  the  interpreter  can  make  the  work  of  a  great 
master.  The  other,  Jowett  (I  really  cannot  remember  what 
he  taught  me),  managed  to  make  everything  he  taught  sugges- 
tive and  productive  of  thought. 

'  Indeed,  if  I  were  to  attempt  to  characterize  in  a  few  words 
the  effect  which  Jowett's  personality  had  upon  me  through 

1  She  was  anticipated,  if  I  mis-  Another   creator    of    nicknames, 

take  not,  by  Mr.  Edward  Pigott  Mrs.  Ferrier  of  St.  Andrews,  used 

in  the  Leader  (weekly)  newspaper,  to  speak  of  him  some  years  after- 

who  wrote  of  him,  in  the  early  wards  as  the  '  little  downy  owl.' — 

fifties,  as 'the  middle- aged  cherub.'  L.  C. 


1836-1840}        Lord  Farrer's  Reminiscences  67 

life,  in  our  latest  visits  to  one  another  as  well  as  in  those 
early  days  at  Balliol,  I  should  say  that  it  was  stimulating 
rather  than  formative.  His  instruction  was  not  the  explana- 
tion of  a  system  of  thought  or  the  communication  of  cut  and 
dried  propositions,  but  the  opening  of  a  vista  which  you  were 
to  follow  up  yourself.  He  had  the  Socratic  art  of  saying  to 
youthful  eagerness,  "Are  you  sure  you  are  right?"  but  of 
saying  it  in  such  a  manner  as  to  develop  zeal  in  the  pursuit 
of  truth.  He  discouraged  dogmatism,  he  encouraged  thought. 
Perhaps  this  temper  of  mind  was  at  a  later  period  fostered 
by  what  I  always  felt  to  be  his  somewhat  equivocal  position 
with  respect  to  the  Church  and  Church  doctrines  ;  a  relation 
which,  whilst  in  some  respects  it  gave  him  great  power,  I  have 
often  wished  otherwise.  But  however  this  may  be,  I  have 
always  felt  from  those  early  undergraduate  days  down  to  the  last 
visit  I  paid  him  in  Balliol  in  1893,  that  his  effect  on  me  was  one 
of  the  most  invaluable  services  one  man  can  render  to  another, 
viz.  the  stimulation  of  mental  and  moral  energy — of  eVepycia 
i/^X*?5  Kar>  apeTiyv,  and  he  would  have  gladly  added  himself— ev 
/3to>  TeAeiu)  ("in  a  complete  existence "). 

'  I  remember  at  one  of  the  Balliol  gatherings  of  which  he 
was  so  fond,  when  going  through  his  old  friends  in  his  after- 
dinner  speeches,  his  referring  to  those  old  undergraduate 
relations  between  us  by  saying  of  me — "And  then  comes  my 
old  friend  Farrer,  of  whom  I  may  perhaps  say,  that  something 
more  might  have  come  of  him  if  he  had  not  been  my  first 
pupil."  I  prize  those  words  for  their  kindness,  not  for  their 
truth.' 


68  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  in 


LETTEKS,  1837-1839. 


To  ~W.  A.  GEEENHILL. 

COWES,  5  TRAFALGAR  PLACE, 

September  15,  [1837]. 

...  I  went  to  call  on  Waldegrave.  He  was  in  Ireland  with 
his  father's  ship,  but  his  mother  received  me  very  kindly, 
so  that  I  was  really  glad  to  have  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing 
her.  She  almost  did  as  much  to  dispel  my  prejudices  against 
the  Evangelicals,  as  the  Welsh  clergyman  had  done  to  increase 
them.  Indeed  I  hope  I  see  more  and  more  the  necessity  of 
not  proscribing  any  order  of  men,  however  widely  we  may 
differ  from  them  in  opinion. 

There  is  a  text  very  often  quoted  which  it  is  hard  to  realize 
in  its  full  meaning — '  they  that  do  the  works  shall  know  of 
the  doctrine.'  In  the  present  state  of  the  Christian  world, 
especially  at  Oxford,  it  is  a  great  consolation  to  think  of  this, 
if  we  do  but  begin  at  the  right  end  by  doing  our  duty  first. 

To  W.  A.  GEEENHILL. 

ILFRACOMBE,  August  26,  1838. 

You  will  be  surprised  at  receiving  this  letter  from  me 
from  the  place  from  which  it  is  written,  but  before  I  tell  you 
anything  about  my  doings,  I  must  beg  you  to  forgive  my 
long  silence,  which  has  been  caused  by  close  employment 
in  reading,  and  teaching  my  two  brothers. 

Whether  you  think  this  apology  sufficient  or  no,  I  most 
sincerely  hope  that  you  will  not  interpret  my  neglect  into 
unkindness  or  ingratitude. 

You  do  not  like  my  saying  much  on  the  latter  head — the 
obligation  to  you — which  I  have  never  sufficiently  felt,  and 
in  comparison  with  which  all  your  other  kindness  however 


Letters,  1837-1839  69 

great  is  as  nothing — I  mean  your  endeavour  to  keep  me  in 
the  right  way 1. 

...  I  came  here  three  days  since,  and  shall  remain  till  the 
end  of  the  week.  Before  I  leave  I  purpose  walking  along 
the  coast  to  Clovelly  and  back  again,  and  from  Linton  to  Bridg- 
water.  We  had  a  terrible  passage  here  by  the  steamer,  which, 
although  the  distance  is  but  80  miles,  lasted  two  days.  After 
lying  to  the  greater  part  of  the  first  day  we  attempted  to 
proceed  in  the  evening,  but  had  not  gone  above  a  mile  when 
we  were  struck  by  a  Welsh  steamer.  The  carrying  away  of 
the  figurehead  was  the  only  injury  we  received,  but  as  the  sea 
was  running  high  the  captain  was  afraid  to  proceed.  We 
arrived  here  after  a  stormy  passage  at  six  o'clock  the  next  day. 

.  .  .  Speaking  of  Newman,  there  is  an  article  in  the  last 
Edinburgh  on  the  life  of  Froude2  in  which,  though  gross  in- 
justice is  done  to  the  subject  of  it,  there  are  some  striking 
and  useful  remarks.  It  is  evidently  written  by  a  religious 
man,  and  would  I  think  please,  and  certainly  not  displease 
you.  How  full  religious  people's  minds  are  of  what  they 
term  the  popery  of  Oxford — their  violence  against  it  being 
in  exact  proportion  to  their  ignorance.  I  do  not  either  agree 
with  or  understand  many  of  Newman's  principles,  but  cannot 
help  thinking  that  they  will  have  on  the  whole  a  salutary 
influence  on  the  Protestant  Church  in  bringing  back  men's 
minds  to  a  class  of  duties  which  have  been  too  much  neglected. 
I  fancy  that  in  the  ordinary  divinity  of  the  day,  far  too  much 
stress  is  laid  on  words  ;  there  is  a  sort  of  theological  slang, 
if  I  may  be  excused  the  expression,  a  religious  phraseology, 
in  laying  aside  which  you  are  supposed  to  be  undermining 

1  More   than  fifty  years  after  days,  and  had  troubles  to  which 

this,  in  writing  to  Dr.  Greenhill,  I  was  unequal,  though  I   ought 

who   had   congratulated  him  on  not  to   have  been  so.  ...  This 

his  recovery  from  the  almost  fatal  College  has  been  a  haven  to  me 

illness   of   1891,    he   referred   to  for   fifty-six,   or,  since  I  gained 

their  intercourse    at  this  time  :  a  Fellowship,  fifty-three  years.' 
'  I   shall   always  remember  with          2  Edinburgh   Review   for  July, 

gratitude  your  great  kindness  to  1838, 'Remains  of  Richard  Hurrell 

me  when  I  was  a  youth.     I  was  Froude.' 
very  weak  and  wayward  in  those 


70  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  in 

the  fundamentals  of  the  Christian  Faith.  Thus,  if  you  do 
not  draw  a  very  distinct  line  between  faith  and  works  you 
are  supposed  to  be  unsound  in  doctrine,  a  distinction  which 
seems  to  me  to  have  arisen  very  much  from  a  wrong  applica- 
tion of  St.  Paul's  words,  referring  to  the  works  of  the  law 
and  the  principles  of  the  Gospel,  an  opposition  which  I  do  not 
understand  when  applied  to  the  faith  and  practice  of  the 
Christian  covenant. 

St.  Paul's  was  not,  I  think,  decided  when  you  left.  Kynaston 
was  the  successful  candidate '.  One  circumstance  gave  me 
great  pleasure.  I  was  assured  by  an  impartial  person,  that 
by  far  the  best  testimonial  sent  in  was  one  for  Massie,  given 
by  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff  without  his  application  or  knowledge. 

To  W.  A.  GREENHILL. 

TENBY,  July  2,  1839,  Tuesday  Morning. 

I  should  have  written  to  you  before  this,  but  the  two  last 
days  have  been  so  full  of  trouble  and  anxiety  that  I  am  sure 
you  will  excuse  it. 

My  beloved  sister  is  gone  to  her  rest,  nevermore  to  be 
disturbed  by  the  cares  and  sorrows  of  this  sinful  world.  The 
last  two  days  of  her  life,  it  was  the  saddest  scene  I  ever 
witnessed.  At  the  beginning  of  the  week  there  had  been 
a  great  improvement,  all  symptoms  of  the  disease  having  sub- 
sided. On  Saturday  morning  a  great  change  took  place  and 
the  last  struggle  began.  I  am  most  thankful  it  is  now  all 
over ;  although  I  never  saw  death  before,  I  do  not  think  it  can 
be  often  seen  in  so  dreadful  a  form. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  her  illness,  with  far  more  to 
attach  her  to  life  than  most  young  persons,  she  did  not  wish 
to  recover.  We  dwell  very  much  on  everything  she  said, 
as,  from  her  being  almost  insensible  during  the  last  few  weeks, 
she  was  unable  to  bear  much  testimony  to  the  power  of 
religion.  While  in  health  she  read  the  Scriptures  and  prayed 
regularly,  latterly  visiting  among  the  poor,  and  this  gives  me 
a  far  surer  confidence  than  a  few  rapturous  expressions  on 

1  Kynaston  succeeded  Sleath  as  High  Master  of  St.  Paul's  School, 
in  June,  1838. 


Letters,  i8jj-i8jc> 


71 


a  death-bed  would  have  done.  On  Sunday  afternoon  she 
became  more  sensible,  and  after  reading  two  prayers  from  the 
Visitation  of  the  Sick  I  asked  her  if  she  felt  happy  ;  she  replied 
faintly  that  she  did.  I  asked  her  to  assure  my  mother  that 
she  was  so  (as  the  latter  had  made  herself  needlessly  unhappy 
about  it).  She  said  she  could  hardly  venture  to  do  so.  On 
Saturday,  when  in  the  greatest  pain  of  body,  she  remembered 
the  servant  girl  who  waited  upon  her,  requesting  my  elder 
sister  to  talk  to  her  and  have  her  taught  to  read  the  Scriptures. 
I  could  tell  you  a  great  deal  more  about  her,  but  my  heart 
is  too  full  to  go  on.  When  I  remember  her  form  and  dis- 
position, such  as  I  never  saw  united  in  any  one  else,  I  feel 
persuaded  that  I  can  never  again  be  so  happy  as  I  was  before. 
I  do  not  repine  against  Providence,  but  pray  God  that  the 
scene  of  the  last  few  days  may  for  ever  dwell  in  my  mind 
and  be  a  continual  motive  to  love  and  serve  Him.  To  me 
who  feel  my  own  weakness  more  and  more  contemptible,  her 
strength  of  mind  was  quite  extraordinary.  But  I  feel  I  am 
running  away  into  what  I  can  hardly  trust  myself  to  speak 
of.  Out  of  a  family  of  nine  there  are  now  only  five  remaining, 
and  I  thank  God  that  He  has  hitherto  been  pleased  to  take 
those  who  were  best  fitted  to  serve  Him  in  heaven. 


Since  these  pages  were  in  type,  the  following  entry  from  the 
Balliol  Boat  Club  Eecords  has  been  supplied  by  the  kindness  of  the 
Hon.  A.  Henley  and  Mr.  A.  L.  Smith  :— 

Saturday,   June   2,    1838.      Sculling   sweepstakes   at  ss.  6d.    each,    at 
2  o'clock,  from  the  top  of  the  Long  Reach,  round  the  Island,  up  to  Iffley. 
Order  in  rows,  numbered  as  they  came  in. 

3 
17      Davy  1 8 

J.  Sumner      13 
E.  Hobhouse  15 


C.  Sumner  n 

Swayne  12 

Jowett  14 

Moncrieff  2 


2 

Moberly 
Garnett 
Brodie 
Hardinge 


4 

Estcourt 
Trower 
Holbeck 
E.  Hobhouse 
Xorthcote 


5 

Powys 
T.  Farrer 
Pocock 


ist  Prize,  £2  IDS.  ;  2nd  Prize,  £i  los. ;  3rd  Prize,  £i ;  4th,  recovered  stake. 

Each  row  had  an  umpire,  who  arranged  by  lot  the  place  of  his  men — the 

starting-posts  10  paces  apart — boats  started  with  their  heads  level  with 

the  post. 

N.B.   10  paces  seemed  barely  enough. 


CHAPTER  IV 

FELLOW   AND    TUTOR    OF   BALLIOL.       1840-1846 

(Aet.  23-29) 

W.  G.  WARD  and  A.  P.  Stanley—  Tract  XC  and  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles  —  First  foreign  tour  —  The  Decade—  Assistant  Tutorship  — 
Ordination  —  The  Paris  libraries—  Appointment  as  Tutor  (1842)  — 
College  business  —  With  Stanley  in  Germany  —  Hegel  and  Schelling  — 
Degradation  of  Ward  —  Action  of  the  'Oxford  Liberals'  —  Projected 
work  on  the  New  Testament  —  Archdeacon  Palmer's  reminiscences  — 
Letters. 


years  from  1840  onwards,  though  outwardly 
•*•  uneventful,  were  fertile  in  consequences.  Jowett's 
increasing  intercourse  with  Ward  and  Stanley,  both  of 
whom  in  different  ways  were  leaders  of  the  theological 
agitation  then  at  its  height,  the  commencement  of  his 
Tutorship,  his  own  independent  studies  and  reflections,  to 
which  the  prospect  of  Ordination  gave  practical  signifi- 
cance —  all  tended  to  promote  the  growth  and  con- 
solidation of  his  mind.  Friendships  with  younger 
men  were  also  formed,  which  lasted  to  his  latest  breath. 
Through  Stanley  he  already  came  into  contact  with  the 
great  world.  An  influence  of  which  no  one  anticipated 
the  extent  or  depth  had  its  commencement  here. 

In  the  years  which  immediately  followed  his  degree 
he  seems  to  have  spent  part  of  the  vacations  in  solitary 


William  George  Ward  73 

rambles  ; — accepting  lifts  from  bagmen,  stopping  at  way- 
side inns,  visiting  Cathedral  towns,  and  conversing  with 
all  and  sundry  as  occasion  served  him.  His  familiar 
knowledge  of  English  topography  often  surprised  those 
who  had  only  known  him  in  the  retirement  of  his  study. 

Meanwhile  in  his  own  case  that  '  other  work  of 
education * '  of  which  he  wrote  in  1860  had  begun.  This 
may  be  roughly  dated  from  the  completion  of  his  Latin 
Essay,  which  won  the  Chancellor's  Prize  in  the  spring  of 
1841.  Stanley's  efforts  in  favour  of  a  large  toleration  had 
his  entire  sympathy,  and  their  intercourse,  even  in  the 
earlier  years  of  Jowett's  Fellowship,  was  pretty  constant. 
But  a  more  intense  albeit  temporary  influence  was 
working  within  the  walls  of  Balliol.  The  strange  and 
powerful  individuality  of  William  George  "Ward  had 
not  yet  taken  its  final  bent,  and  the  communication 
of  his  questionings  and  mental  struggles  in  many 
a  dialectic  argument  produced  a  strong  effect  upon 
young  Jowett's  mind.  To  Ward  more  than  to  any 
other  man  he  probably  owed  his  first  initiation  into  meta- 
physical inquiry.  It  is  true  that  the  Scotchmen, 
especially  John  Campbell  Shairp 2,  brought  with  them 
some  Kantian  enthusiasm,  and  that  the  prose  writings 
of  S.  T.  Coleridge  were  already  attracting  attention  in 
Oxford  ;  but  the  fervid  and  incessant  talk  of  a  senior 

1  'As  he  grows  older  he  mixes  St.    Paul,    3rd    edition,    vol.    ii. 

more  and  more  with  others  ;  first  p.  57. 

with  one  or  two  who  have  great          2  Principal  Shairp  used  to  tell 

influence     in    the    direction    of  how  he   had  brought  with  him 

his  mind.     At  length  the  world  from  Glasgow  a  copy  of  Kant's 

opens  upon  him ;    another  work  Metaphysic  of  Ethic  (probably  in 

of    education    begins;     and    he  Sernple's  translation)  and  lent  it 

learns  to  discern  more  truly  the  to  Jowett,  who  afterwards  went 

meaning  of  things  and  his  rela-  stamping  about  the  quadrangle. 

tion  to  men  in  general.'—'  Essay  as  if  to  assure  himself  that  the 

on    Interpretation/   Epistles    of  solid  earth  was  beneath  his  feet. 


74  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

colleague  so  vivacious  as  Ward  must  have  been  far 
more  influential.  In  a  conversational  intercourse  that 
never  flagged,  difficulties  raised  by  Bentham,  John  Stuart 
Mill,  or  Auguste  Comte  were  laid  by  the  authority  of 
the  Fathers.  Such  were  the  strange  cross-currents  of  the 
time.  Years  afterwards  Jowett  used  to  speak  of  "Ward 
as  a  kind  of  Silenus-Socrates,  whose  delight  it  was  to 
deliver  young  men  of  their  doubts.  For  a  brief  while 
his  influence  drew  Jowett  powerfully  in  the  direction  of 
Newmanism l. 

'I  sometimes  think,'  said  Jowett  once  (about  1856),  'that 
but  for  some  divine  providence  I  might  have  become  a  Koman 
Catholic.  I  had  resolved  to  read  through  the  Fathers,  and 
if  I  found  Puseyism  there  I  was  to  become  a  Puseyite.  It  is 
not  unlikely  that  I  might  have  found  it,  but  before  I  had  gone 
through  my  task  the  vacation  ended,  and  on  returning  to 
Oxford  we  found  that  Ward  was  going  to  be  married  !  After 
that  the  Tractarian  impulse  subsided,  and  while  some  of  us 
took  to  German  Philosophy,  others  turned  to  lobster  suppers 
and  champagne.  They  called  that  "  being  unworldly."  ' 

Those  words  were  lightly  spoken,  and  at  a  later  time. 
But  in  the  early  years  of  his  Fellowship,  with  Ordination 
in  prospect,  theological  difficulties  had  a  serious  practical 
import,  especially  in  connexion  with  the  then  burning 
question  of  the  meaning  of  Subscription.  Tract  XC 

1  Some  years  after  this,  January,  us   German,   and  who  considers 

1849,  he  wrote  to  Stanley  from  human  nature  to  be  a  sign  of  in- 

Bonn,  with   reference  to  young  terrogation  which  finds  its  answer 

Cruickshank  (see  above,  p.  21)  :  in  the  Church  :   and  the  other, 

'  I  think   there   are  two   classes  just  the  opposite  class  of  persons, 

of    persons    who    turn     Roman  whose  feelings  are  too  deep  for 

Catholics:  one,  the  rationalizers  them    ever    to    get    on    in    the 

like  Capes  and  Ward,  of  whom  my  highways  of  the  world,  and  who 

present  type  is  a  student  or  rather  find  the  Church  a  home  for  the 

Ph.  D.  who  comes  here  to  teach  lonely.' 


1840-1846]      Tract  XC  and  Subscription  75 

appeared  on  January  25,  1841,  and  was  immediately 
followed  by  an  outburst  of  controversy.  Jowett  had 
formed  the  habit,  recommended  by  Locke,  of  tabulating 
reasons  for  and  against  disputed  propositions ;  and  on 
May  20  of  this  year  he  began  a  series  of  notes  on  the 
question  of  Subscription,  which  still  remain  amongst 
his  papers.  They  are  in  pencil,  and  in  a  neat  upright 
hand,  not  unlike  that  of  his  sister  Emily.  "While 
reflecting  much  of  the  intellectual  perplexity  that  was 
rife  in  the  Oxford  of  that  day.  these  observations,  which 
would  occupy  about  four  pages  of  small  print,  bear  also 
the  clear  impress  of  an  independent  and  finely  balanced 
mind,  and  of  the  intrepid  determination  to  thrash  out 
the  subject,  not  blinking  any  aspect  of  it,  and  to  reach 
a  decisive  judgement  as  a  basis  of  action.  On  the  whole 
he  seems  to  have  been  at  the  moment  in  favour  of  getting 
the  Articles  simplified  and  reimposed  by  the  authority 
of  the  State. 

'  This  seems  really  the  practical  thing  to  struggle  for.  If  it 
be  said,  it  would  drive  many  good  men  from  the  Church,  it  can 
only  be  replied,  that  good  men  were  driven  out  at  the  Kestora- 
tion,  and  that  we  are  apt  to  estimate  the  evil  to  religion  by  the 
extent  of  evil  to  our  personal  friends.  .  .  . ' 

'  The  Articles  may  include  as  many  as  they  do  now — only 
without  danger  to  men's  consciences— those  which  are  am- 
biguous now  may  be  omitted — the  Articles  at  present  are 
a  sort  of  movable  fence  which  may  be  shifted  as  far  as  you 
please — the  restraint  they  impose  is  purely  imaginary.  This 
ideal  restraint  may  be  really  useful,  until  men  begin  to  push 
at  it ;  afterwards  it  is  worse  than  useless.' 

Under  the  existing  conditions  it  seemed  equally  im- 
possible to  admit  a  strict  construction  or  an  indefinite 
latitude. 

'  The  original  framers  were  not  at  one  with  themselves,  or 


76  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

with  the  second  revisers,  or  with  the  Convocation  which 
sanctioned,  or  with  the  last  revisers  who  put  forth  the 
Articles.' 

'  It  may  be  said — ' '  Why  not  take  them,  as  all  good  men  do, 
in  their  obvious  sense?"  Because  this  is  impossible.  The 
Articles  are  irreconcilable  with  the  Liturgy  if  both  are  taken 
in  their  most  obvious  sense :  both  being  equally  imposed  on 
the  clergy.' 

'Again,  it  may  not  be  denied  that  some  licence  is  allowable — 
it  cannot  be  supposed  that  all  the  propositions  in  the  Articles 
were  to  be  taken  in  their  fullest  sense.  But  where  can  we 
draw  the  line  about  this  licence,  especially  as  every  man  sees 
the  Articles  through  his  own  spectacles  ? ' 

Once  more,  supposing  the  Articles  to  be  imposed  by  the 
State — 

'  We  should  be  only  obliged  to  take  the  test  in  the  letter  as 
we  should  obey  a  law.  .  .  .  No  one  can  say  we  are  bound  to 
carry  out  in  its  full  spirit  a  law  we  conceive  to  be  indefensible. ' 

These  notes  are  immediately  followed  by  other  dis- 
cussions, which  throw  considerable  light  on  this  transition 
phase  of  a  cautiously  comprehensive  mind. 

On  the  Relation  of  Tradition  to  Scripture. 

'  There  seem  to  be  several  views  on  this  subject. 

'  i.  Of  the  extreme  ultra-Protestant,  who  takes  the  Bible 
and  the  Bible  alone,  without  note  or  comment  either  of  Fathers 
or  any  one  else,  and  professes  that  by  the  agency  of  prayer  and 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  he  shall  be  guided  into  all  truth. 

'  He  would  urge  that  the  most  ignorant  people  are  capable 
of  receiving  the  saving  truths  of  the  Gospel  and  getting 
comfort  from  them.  And  most  truly  so :  but  it  must  be 
remembered  as  one  of  the  most  wonderful  parts  of  Christianity 
that  it  is  a  scheme  which  adapts  itself  not  only  to  different 
ages,  but  to  different  ranks  of  mind  and  education.  The  poor 
man  does  not  need  a  complete  doctrinal  system,  and  therefore 


1840-1846]          Theological  Notes,  1841  77 

does  not  want  the  helps  towards  forming  them  from  Scripture  *  ; 
but  the  educated  man  does,  and  ought  to,  form  such 
a  system.  Further,  it  is  impossible  to  say  how  much  all  men 
through  very  different  channels  get  of  tradition. 

'2.  Of  those  who  consider  the  Bible  as  the  only  inspired 
writing,  but  think  that  for  the  right  understanding  of  it 
the  same  ordinary  assistances  are  required  as  for  the  under- 
standing any  other  moral  or  religious  system. 

'  (The  second  view  \vould  give  quite  a  sufficient  authority  for 
all  the  doctrines  and  observances  of  the  English  Church.) 

'  3.  Of  the  Anglican,  who  holds  the  Bible  to  be  in  the 
highest  sense  inspired,  but  that  the  oral  teaching  of  the 
Apostles  has  been  preserved  by  the  Fathers  of  the  Church, 
whose  writings,  for  this  reason,  have  a  claim  to  a  secondary 
kind  of  inspiration.  That  their  only  authority  springs  from  the 
preservation  of  Apostolical  fragments,  and  that  one  only  test 
of  this  original  doctrine  is  its  catholicity — •"  Quod  semper,  quod 
ubique,  quod  apud  omnes  " — counting  the  first  three  centuries 
as  preferable  to  all  others,  because  nearer  the  fountain-head. 

'  (The  objection  to  this  view  seems  to  be  the  doubt  whether 
such  genuine  remains  can  be  traced  ;  they  would  be  rather 
found  in  the  form  of  the  Church  itself  than  in  creeds  and 
writings. ) 

'  4.  The  view  of  the  Eomanist,  that  the  decrees  of  the  Church 
represented  by  the  Pope  and  a  general  Council  (says  the 
[Cismontane]),  of  the  Pope  singly  (says  the  Ultramontane\ 
are  the  sole  authority  for  the  interpretation  of  Scripture,  as 
well  as  an  independent  source  from  which  new  truth  may  flow. 

'  5.  There  is  an  opinion  which  may  be  placed  between  these 
two,  which  denies  the  co-ordinate  authority  of  the  Church, 
but  places  no  limit  to  the  interpretation  of  Scripture.  The 
Church  may  draw  an  important  truth  from  a  metaphor, 
a  similitude,  a  single  word,  any  of  the  various  senses  which 
.  a  particular  passage  might  be  made  to  bear.  This  seems  only 
to  differ  from  the  former  view  in  being  dishonest ;  it  has  the 
appearance  of  reverence  to  Scripture  while  it  only  perverts  it. 

1  This  sympathy  with  the  re-  feature  which  reappears  promi- 
ligious  wants  of  the  poor  is  a  nently  in  the  book  on  St.  Paul. 


78  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

It  may  prove  purgatory  from  "every  sacrifice,  &c.,"  papal 
supremacy  from  the  two  swords  of  Peter,  &c.  This  is  a  very 
different  thing  from  the  use  of  Scripture  to  prove  Episcopacy. 

'  (Anglo-Catholic  says  that  his  view  differs  in  an  important 
respect  from  the  papist,  because  it  leads  to  the  study  of 
Scripture.  Such  a  view  would  be  grounded  chiefly  on  the 
interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament  by  St.  Paul  and  the 
practice  of  the  early  Fathers. 

'  It  might  be  urged  against  the  Eomanist  that  he  gives  much 
less  weight  to  S.  S.1  than  the  early  Fathers,  to  which  he  would 
reply  that  S.  S.  stands  in  a  much  less  important  place  in 
respect  to  the  whole  body  of  revealed  truth,  now  than  then.) ' 

These  notes  sufficiently  indicate  his  attitude  at  the 
moment  towards  the  Tractarian  School.  Another  entry, 
'  On  Strauss's  Theory  of  Christianity,'  shows  how  far  his 
mind  was  opening  to  speculations  of  a  different  nature. 

'  Strauss  considers  Christianity  to  have  been  the  offspring 
of  a  mythical  age,  enlightened  indeed  by  revelation  but  forming 
a  slender  groundwork  of  facts  into  a  mythic  history.  (The 
a  priori  truth  which  is  supposed  to  be  self-evident  and 
which  all  these  systems  are  intended  to  support  is  the 
subordination  of  Christianity  to  German  philosophy.)  A  male- 
factor named  Christ  who  was  put  to  death  for  religious 
enthusiasm  might  undoubtedly  have  existed  ;  he  was  brought 
into  the  mythic  scheme  of  the  Jews,  just  as  Xuthus  into 
the  Pelasgic  mythology,  but  the  attributes  given  to  him 
were  not  those  of  a  person  but  of  a  principle :  he  became  the 
embodied  representative  of  a  new  system  of  belief.  (Note. 
A  much  more  plausible  theory  would  speak  of  Christianity 
as  an  inspired  myth.)  The  Gospels  were  written  many  years 
after  his  death  :  they  are  full  of  miracles  and  supernatural 
appearances  which  the  common  sense  of  mankind  has  agreed 
to  reject  Moreover  they  bear  traces  of  two  schools  of  mythic- 
lore,  a  Jewish  and  a  Greek,  and  for  this  reason  are  as  full 
of  discrepancies  as  any  confused  mythology  of  the  Ancients. 
The  doctrines  are  the  dry  core  of  truth  which  they  contain. 

1  Scriptura  Sancta. 


1840-1846]       Influence  of  W.  G.   Ward  79 

These   may   be   separated   from   the   facts,    as   they   rest   too 
upon  an  internal  evidence  which  the  other  cannot  have.' 

A  brief  note  on  the  evidence  of  prophecy1  further 
indicates  the  direction  in  which  his  thoughts  were 
moving : — 

'It  is  worth  while  considering  in  what  the  real  evidence 
from  prophecy  consists — not  certainly  in  the  exact  fulfilment 
of  minute  details  giving  occasion  for  all  sorts  of  phantasies 
a  la  Prideaux  and  Newton,  nor  in  the  application  of  most 
of  them  (except  those  referring  to  our  Lord)  to  a  particular 
individual  or  time  ;  but  in  their  general  applicability  to  the 
Phenomena  of  the  world  in  these  latter  days.  They  may 
be  interpreted  on  large  and  liberal  principles,  as  the  words  of 
Him  "with  whom  a  thousand  days  are  as  one  day,  and  one  day 
as  a  thousand  years." 

The  same  note-book  contains  the  heads  of  similar  dis- 
cussions on  '  The  Respect  due  to  our  Mother  Church,' 
'  Prayers  for  the  Dead,'  '  Transubstantiation,'  '  Internal 
and  External  Evidence,'  '  Romanism  and  Rationalism  V 
'  Romanism  and  Evangelicism,'  '  The  Patristic  System,' 
'  The  Power  of  the  Keys,'  '  Absolution,'  '  The  Via  Media,' 
&c.,  all  showing  the  drift  of  his  thoughts  and  the  resolu- 
tion to  let  no  doctrine  pass  unchallenged.  It  is  evident 
that  when,  through  his  intercourse  with  Ward,  he  was 
most  powerfully  drawn  towards  Tractarianism  3,  he  was 
thinking  actively  and  independently.  The  attraction 
was  a  strong  one,  however.  Ward's  influence  in  stimu- 
lating theological  inquiry  was  not  the  less  poignant  and 
invasive,  because  of  the  many-sided  activity  of  his 

1  Cf.  Remains  of  Rev.  J.  Davison,  other  of  German  Philosophy.' 
autnor  of  Discourses  on  Prophecy.  3  There   is   little    evidence  of 

2  'Both    Romanism    and    Ra-  Jowett's  having  ever  come  directly 
tionalism  are  founded  in  a  great  under  the  spell  which  in  these 
measure  on  metaphysical  specula-  years  J.   H.    Newman   exercised 
tions,  one  of  the  Schoolmen,  the  over  many  minds. 


8o  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

intellect.  Readers  of  that  delightful  book  William 
George  Ward  and  the  Oxford  Movement  will  not  readily 
forget  either  Professor  Jowett's  recollections  therein 
embodied  (pp.  112-114,  428,  439)  or  the  picture  of  Ward 
as  improvising  a  ballet  d 'action,  in  which  he  impersonated 
the  Master  (Jeiikyns),  mimicking  the  well-known  voice 
and  demeanour  and  'pirouetting1.' 

It  was  probably  to  one  who  literally  could  have 
'  acted  Falstaff  without  padding,'  that  Jowett  owed  his 
more  intimate  acquaintance  with  Shakespeare  which 
began  about  this  time.  He  certainly  always  knew  his 
Shakespeare  best  upon  the  comic  side,  seldom  quoting 
any  serious  passages  except  from  the  Tempest  -,  and  now 
and  then  a  familiar  phrase  from  Hamlet  or  Macbeth. 
His  junior  contemporary  John  Duke  Coleridge  was  also 
noted  as  a  Shakespearian  scholar  and  reciter.  But  the 
enthusiasm  of  Coleridge,  Shairp,  and  other  friends  for 
Wordsworth3  and  Tennyson,  had  in  these  earlier  days 
little  effect  on  Jowett. 

After  long  separation,  he  met  his  old  friend  at  Fresh- 
water, in  the  Isle  of  Wight :  this  was  about  1868,  during 
one  of  his  many  visits  to  Farringford.  He  was  delighted, 

1  W.    G.    Ward,    fyc.,    p.    40.  2  On   September   5,   1846,    he 

Jowett's  words  to  Stanley  a  year  wrote  to   R.   R.   W.   Lingen  :  '  I 

or  two  after  Ward's  admission  to  have  been  reading  Shakespeare 

the  Church  of  Rome,  call  up  a  pic-  daily.     The   Tempest  strikes  me 

ture  of  the  man  :  '  I  cannot  resist  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable 

the  charms  of  the  fat  fellow  when-  and  least  understood   plays.     Is 

ever  I  get  into  his  company.     You  it  not  a  sort  of  English  Faust  ? ' 

like  him  as  you  like  a  Newfound-  3  He    said    of   one    who    was 

land  dog.     He    is   such  a  large,  known  amongst  his  comrades  as 

jolly,  shaggy  creature.  Though  he  'the  poet'  (1846):  'He  is  a  very 

is  not  yet  changed  into  an  Italian  clever  fellow  and  with  consider- 

greyhound,  the  shagginess  is  be-  able  powers  of  mind,  but  obscured 

ginning  to  wear  off  with  the  in-  a  little  by  the  haze  of  Emerson 

fluences  of  a  Southern  climate/  and  Wordsworth.' 


1840-1846]  The  Decade  81 

as  he  told  me,  to  find  that  his  former  comrade  cherished 
warmly  the  recollection  of  earlier  days.  Mr.  Lecky,  who 
was  present,  witnessed  the  joyous  eagerness  of  their  re- 
greetings. 

'  He  (Ward)  reminded  me, '  says  Jowett,  '  that  I  charged  him 
with  shallow  logic,  and  that  he  retorted  on  me  with  "misty 
metaphysics."  This  perhaps  was  not  an  unfair  account  of 
the  state  of  the  controversy  between  us1.' 

An  outlet  for  the  intellectual  activity  with  which 
Jowett  was  brimming  over  at  this  time  was  afforded  by 
a  small  debating  society  called  the  Decade.  This  is 
mentioned  in  a  letter  of  George  Butler's  in  1841  2,  which 
throws  a  welcome  light  on  Jowett's  relations  with  other 
contemporaries  and  on  his  position  in  the  University. 
It  appears  that  Jowett  had  proposed  that  Butler  should 
be  a  member  of  this  little  club. 

'  I  see  Jowett  occasionally ;  I  like  him  very  much.  He 
is  very  quiet  in  manner,  and  does  not  show  off  to  advantage 
in  a  roomful  of  men,  but  he  is  a  very  agreeable  companion. 
He  has  made  me  an  exceedingly  kind  offer,  which  I  think 
you  would  like  me  to  accept.  He  is  a  member  of  a  debating 
society  called  the  "  Decade."  I  think  there  are  twelve  members 
now.  They  meet  at  each  other's  rooms  for  discussion  on 
a  subject  previously  announced.  Among  the  members  are 
Jowett  himself,  Lake  (a  Fellow  of  Balliol),  Arthur  Stanley  (son 
of  Bishop  Stanley  and  Fellow  of  University  College),  Coleridge, 
Prichard,  Matthew  Arnold  (eldest  son  of  Dr.  Arnold),  Blackett 3, 
and  a  few  others.  They  elect  members  without  their  know- 
ledge, and  then  ask  them  to  join  the  society,  which  precludes 
all  canvassing.  I  am  pleased  beyond  measure  at  the  prospect 
of  getting  into  such  an  excellent  set,  consisting,  as  you  may 
see,  of  the  picked  men  of  the  University.' 

1  W.  G.  Ward,  $c.,  p.  438.  s  John  F.  B.  Blackett,  Fellow 

2  Recollections  of  George  Sutler      of  Merton,   afterwards  M.P.  for 
by  his  wife,  Josephine  Butler,  p.  31.      Newcastle.     He  died  in  1856. 

VOL.    I.  G 


82  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

In  the  summer  of  1841,  Jowett  made  what  seems  to 
have  been  his  first  foreign  tour,  in  company  with  a  friend 
whose  initials  are  J.  P.  Entering  the  Continent  at 
Ostend,  they  visited  Antwerp,  Brussels,  Malines,  Ghent, 
Liege,  and  other  Cathedral  towns  in  Belgium,  Treves  and 
the  valley  of  the  Moselle,  Coblentz,  the  Rhine,  Mayence, 
and  Heidelberg.  He  makes  careful  notes  of  the  archi- 
tecture of  the  Cathedrals,  the  sculptures  in  wood  and 
marble,  the  chief  pictures,  and  the  religious  habits  of 
the  people ;  also  of  the  Roman  remains  at  Treves ;  and 
he  gives  a  picturesque  description  of  the  scenery  of 
the  Moselle.  He  had  already  commenced  the  serious 
study  of  Political  Economy,  and  one  page  is  filled 
with  observations  '  On  the  state  of  the  poor — Schwal- 
bach.'  On  another  page  there  is  a  list  of  works  on 
Political  Economy  to  be  got  for  the  College  Library,  and 
also  a  series  of  acute  general  remarks  on  the  New 
Science,  on  the  Industrial  Revolution  which  had  given 
rise  to  it,  on  the  importance  of  the  subject,  its  relation 
to  morality,  and  the  uncertainties  attending  it. 

Two  extracts  from  the  notes  of  this  tour  may  serve 
to  show  how  his  speculative  thoughts  were  balanced 
with  an  active  habit  of  intelligent  observation  : — 

'  The  Moselle,  a  muddy,  rapid  stream  running  between  hills 
clad  with  vines  and  underwood — sometimes  rugged  and  pre- 
cipitous— sometimes  shelving  down  in  layers  to  the  water's 
edge — at  others  opening  into  a  sort  of  amphitheatre,  at  the 
foot  of  which  the  river  takes  its  winding  course.  In  many 
places  it  has  the  appearance  of  a  lake  seeming  to  spring  from 
the  successive  ranges  of  hills  which  cross  one  another  until 
lost  in  the  vista.  Sometimes  scenery  varied  by  the  cornfields 
which  wave  on  the  very  top  of  the  steep.  The  vines  in  many 
places  stretch  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach. 

'  Low  down  on  the  river  the  rocks  become  more  craggy  and 
terrible,  gradually  closing  in  so  as  to  conceal  the  river  from 


1840-1846]  Ordination  83 

view :    the  ruins  of  old  castles  raised  on  eminences  greatly 
increase  the  picturesqueness  of  the  scene. 

'  Another  feature  of  the  river  is  the  villages  with  which  the 
bank  is  studded — each  with  its  church  and  school  and  picturesque 
houses  with  wooden  frameworks.' 

'  The  Church  of  St.  Paulinus  (Treves).  Italian  architecture, 
the  sides  of  the  interior  ornamented  with  pilasters  terminated 
by  coloured  capitals  with  projecting  entablature,  intended  to 
harmonize  with  the  painted  roof,  a  very  curious  piece  of  work 
executed  about  a  hundred  years  ago.  It  is  intended  to  represent 
the  martyrdom  of  40,000  Christians  who  perished  at  Treves  in 
the  Diocletian  persecution.  At  one  end  of  the  picture  the  work  of 
slaughter  has  commenced,  the  waters  of  the  Rhine  are  flowing 
red  :  about  the  centre  Christ  and  the  Father  are  represented 
with  the  cross.' 

When  he  returned  to  Balliol  in  October,  1841,  although 
not  yet  Tutor,  he  began  to  take  a  share  in  the  teaching 
of  the  College.  This  is  evidenced  by  notes  for  lectures 
on  Aristotle  and  Butler,  long  strings  of  questions,  and 
subjects  for  essays,  and  other  hints  for  classical  in- 
struction, in  the  note-book  of  which  so  much  has  here 
been  said.  He  appears  as  'Assistant  Tutor'  in  the 
Oxford  Calendar  of  1842  (brought  up  to  date  for 
December,  1841). 

In  1842  he  took  Deacon's  Orders.  From  the  dry  light 
of  speculation  which,  shines  through  the  disquisitions 
above  quoted,  it  is  not  to  be  inferred  that,  at  this 
time,  his  emotional  nature  was  not  also  deeply  stirred. 
The  truth  comes  out  in  his  letters  to  his  friend  Greenhill 
(inserted  at  the  end  of  this  chapter),  with  whom  for 
a  time  he  seems  to  have  indulged  in  an  interchange  of 
'  religious  sympathy.'  There  are  traces  in  them  of  some 
inequalities  of  health  and  spirits — perhaps  also  of  inward 
struggles. 

G   2 


84  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

A  sentence  in  the  letter  from  Bonn,  June  28,  1842  J, 
in  which  he  deprecates  further  correspondence  on  this 
subject,  is  characteristic  and  biographically  important. 

Like  every  act  of  his  life,  his  Ordination  vows  were 
realized  by  him  with  deep  intensity.  This  was  mani- 
fested not  only  by  increasing  devotion  to  his  pupils, 
but  by  single  incidents,  in  which  he  boldly  broke  through 
conventionality,  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  his 
profession,  and  overcame  his  natural  shyness. 

From  that  moment,  and  to  the  end  of  his  life,  he  was 
in  the  truest  sense  a  'son  of  consolation.' 

Sir  Henry  Acland  has  favoured  us  with  the  following 
account  of  a  fact  in  his  own  experience  which  exemplifies 
this : — 

'I  first  saw  Mr.  Jowett  in  1844  at  the  country  house  of 
Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  (Betchworth,  Surrey2),  the  grandfather 
of  the  present  Baronet. 

'  Mr.  Jowett  was  a  close  friend  of  the  eldest  son,  afterwards 
Professor  of  Chemistry  here,  and  was  on  a  visit  to  Sir  Benjamin. 
I  was  weak  and  ill,  and  one  night  when  Jowett  heard  I  was 
sleepless,  he  came  quietly  into  my  room,  sat  by  the  bedside, 
and  said  in  that  small  voice,  once  heard  never  to  be  forgotten, 
"  You  are  very  unwell,  I  will  read  to  you  "  :  and  he  read  in  the 
same  voice  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  St.  John,  and  said,  "  I  hope 
you  will  feel  better,"  and  went  away,  and  often,  often  have 
I  thought  of  this  during  Oxford  controversies.' 

His  sense  of  his  vocation  in  another  aspect  may  be 
illustrated  by  the  following  anecdote.  When  staying  at 
a  country  house,  amongst  men  of  great  literary  reputation, 
when  the  host,  then  but  slightly  known  to  him,  made 
use  of  some  Rabelaisian  expression — unaware  perhaps 
for  the  moment  that  he  was  entertaining  a  clergyman — 

1  See  p.  109.  Brodie,  M.D.,  the  first  baronet, 

2  Broome    Park,     Betchworth,      who  died  there  in  1862. 
Surrey,  was  the   seat   of  Sir  B. 


i84o-i846]  Religious  Attitude  85 

Jowett  said  quite  simply, '  Mr.  -  — ,  I  do  not  think  myself 
better  than  you,  but  I  feel  bound  to  disapprove  of  that 
remark.'  This  attitude  was  maintained  consistently  in 
later  life,  but  with  differences  of  method,  in  accordance 
with  his  increasing  knowledge  of  men  and  things.  At 
a  Scotch  shooting  lodge,  somewhere  in  the  sixties,  he 
insisted  on  going  down  to  the  smoking-room  with  the 
others  at  a  late  hour,  and  when  the  conversation  of  the 
younger  men  took  a  doubtful  turn,  the  small  voice  that 
had  been  silent  hitherto,  was  suddenly  heard — '  There  is 
more  dirt  than  wit  in  that  story,  I  think.'  Once  again, 
in  the  eighties,  when  at  Balliol  after  dinner  some  old 
companion  ventured  on  dangerous  ground,  he  quietly 
said,  '  Shall  we  continue  this  conversation  with  the 
ladies  ?  '  and  rose  to  go  l. 

From  this  epoch  also  may  be  dated  a  marked  ex- 
pansion of  that  cheerful  helpfulness  which  had  always 
characterized  him,  but  received  a  new  impulse  from 
his  Ordination  vow.  No  minister  of  Christ  ever  more 
fully  realized  the  precepts,  'Strengthen  thy  brethren,' 
'  Support  the  weak,'  '  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to 
receive.'  Many  of  his  best  thoughts  on  Law,  Political 
Economy,  Statesmanship,  the  management  of  an  estate, 
the  conduct  of  a  public  office,  were  drawn  from  him  by 
his  practical  sympathy  with  friends  whose  position  was 
most  unlike  his  own,  and  whose  opportunities,  difficulties, 
and  responsibilities  he  sought  to  understand  in  order  to 
advise  them  better.  His  own  work,  already  sufficiently 
heavy,  was  often  multiplied  by  taking  on  himself  the 
duties  of  others  who  were  temporarily  disabled. 

A  letter  to  B.  C.  Brodie,  written  in  October,  1844,  shows 
his  feeling  on  the  subject  of  religion  in  the  years  following 
his  Ordination.  Brodie's  scientific  studies  had  led  him 
1  Cf.  Benjamin  Jowett,  by  L.  A.  Tollemache,  p.  116. 


86  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

to  express  opinions  which   to  Jowett's  mind   savoured 
of  materialism. : — 

'What  appears  to  me  to  make  the  greatest  gulph  between 
us,  is  not  your  taking  a  rationalistic  or  mythic  view  of  the 
Bible,  or  difficulties  about  miracles,  or  even  prayer,  but  that 
you  do  not  leave  any  place  for  religion  at  all,  so  that  although 
you  may  hold  the  being  of  God  as  the  Author  of  the  Universe, 
I  do  not  see  how  you  would  be  worse  off  morally  if  Atheism 
were  proved  to  demonstration.  What  would  you  lose  but 
a  little  poetry,  which  is  a  very  weak  motive  to  holiness  of 
life  ?  And  having  shut  yourself  out  from  any  moral  relation 
to  God  as  an  incentive  to  Duty,  does  this  moral  Atheism 
satisfy  human  nature  ? ' 

Behind  all  ecclesiastical  obligations,  all  speculative 
difficulties,  were  the  realities  in  which  he  afterwards 
summed  up  the  influences  of  religion — '  the  Power  of 
God,  the  Love  of  Christ,  the  efficacy  of  Prayer1.' 

And  at  the  centre  of  his  religious  life,  both  then  and 
afterwards,  was  his  conception  of  the  Person  of  Christ,  the 
divine  image  of  the  Father,  the  Elder  Brother,  the  Sinless 
One,  the  Friend  of  sinners,  who  went  about  doing  good ; 
never  sparing  rebuke,  yet  to  whom  all  would  soonest  go 
for  confession ;  who  called  His  chosen  ones  not  servants 
but  friends,  and  having  loved  His  own,  loved  them,  to 
the  end. 

The  Summer  Term  of  1842  seems  to  have  been  spent  in 
Paris,  where  he  passed  much  time  in  the  great  libraries, 
pursuing  eagerly  an  ambitious  course  of  study.  From 
Paris  he  went  to  Bonn  with  a  pupil,  and  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Nitzsch,  the  great  Homeric  scholar.  It 
was  here  that  he  received  from  A.  C.  Tait  the  news  of 
Dr.  Arnold's  death.  He  had  been  greatly  impressed  with 
Arnold's  inaugural  lecture  in  the  previous  December, 

1  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  3rd  edition,  vol.  ii.  p.  126. 


1840-1846]  Tutor  of  Balliol  87 

and  had  also  seen  him  in  the  Balliol  Common  Eoom, 
where  he  witnessed  the  meeting  of  Arnold  with  W.  G. 
Ward  after  some  passages  of  arms  between  them  ]. 

These  visits  to  Paris  and  Bonn  prepared  the  way  for 
his  parents'  residence  in  the  Rue  Madeleine  from  1846 
onwards,  and  their  temporary  retirement  to  Bonn  during 
the  disturbances  of  1848. 

In  October,  1842,  soon  after  Tait's  appointment  to 
succeed  Dr.  Arnold  at  Rugby,  Jowett  became  a  Tutor  of 
the  College.  The  old  Master  hesitated  about  giving  the 
Tutorship,  vacated  by  Lonsdale2,  to  so  young  a  man. 
But  he  was  prevailed  upon  by  the  urgency  of  Wooll- 
combe. 

The  standard  of  a  College  Tutor's  work  at  Oxford  had 
been  considerably  raised  since  the  commencement  of  the 
century  3  :  first  by  the  Tutors  of  Oriel,  amongst  whom  were 
Richard  Whately4  and  J.  H.  Newman,  and  still  more 
at  Balliol  by  Jowett's  predecessor,  Archibald  Campbell 
Tait.  The  following  entry  from  Tait's  private  Journal 5 
speaks  volumes  as  to  the  ideal  which  he  had  set  before 
him: — 

'  Nov.  16,  1839.  Memorandum. — What  can  be  done  ...  to 
make  more  of  a  pastoral  connexion  between  the  Tutors  and 

1  W.  G.  Ward  and  the  Oxford  James  Lonsdale,  p.  23). 
Movement,  p.  438.  s  Cyril  Jackson  (d.  1819),  who 

2  Earlier    in    the    same    year  preferred  the  Deanery  of  Christ 
Lonsdale     had    written     to    his  Church  to  a  Bishopric  and   did 
mother :  '  You  laugh  at  my  pope  so  much  to  promote  the  Oxford 
Jowett,    but    really    I    know   of  Honours   system,  seems  to  have 
nobody  so   clever.     Several  here  stood  almost   alone  amongst  his 
look  upon  him  and   Stanley  as  contemporaries  as  an  educator  of 
quite  the  cleverest  persons  here,  young  men. 

The  only  fault  in  them  both  is  4  Afterwards     Archbishop     of 

that  they  are  too  purely  intel-  Dublin. 

lectual,   and    rack    their   brains  5  Life    of  Archibald    Campbell 

from  morning  to  night '  (Life  of  Tait,  3rd  ed.  1891,  vol.  i.  p.  72. 


88  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

their  pupils  ?  What  can  be  done  for  making  the  Tutor  more 
fully  superintend  his  individual  pupil's  reading,  without  mere 
reference  to  the  Schools?  What  for  reviving  provisions  to 
enable  the  lower  classes  to  profit  by  the  Universities,  as  they 
did  when  Servitorship  existed l  ?  ' 

Jowett  entered  upon  the  task,  as  thus  conceived,  with 
all  the  freshness  and  ardour  of  youthful  devotion.  But 
some  time  passed  before  he  began  to  reap  the  reward  of 
his  labours.  In  the  years  from  1841  to  1844  inclusive, 
Balliol  was  not  very  fortunate  in  the  Schools.  For 
whatever  reasons,  both  Arthur  Clough  and  Matthew 
Arnold  were  placed  in  the  Second  Class ;  and  the  only 
Balliol  Firsts  of  these  years,  in  eight  Class  Lists,  were 
Constantine  Prichard  in  Michaelmas  Term,  1841,  and 
Frederick  Fanshawe  and  Frederick  Temple  in  Easter 
Term,  1842. 

Jowett's  power  as  a  teacher  did  not  at  once  fully 
assert  itself.  His  reputation  in  those  early  days  rested 
more  upon  Scholarship  than  on  Philosophy.  All  admired 
the  beauty  of  his  Latin  prose,  and  generally  the  felicity 
and  grace  of  his  literary  expression.  It  was  only  towards 
the  end  of  the  period  now  under  consideration,  that  he 
commenced  those  lectures  on  the  History  of  Philosophy 
which  first  revealed  to  a  select  number  of  his  pupils 
the  larger  scope  of  his  thoughts.  This  was  probably 
after  his  return  from  Germany  in  1844.  Such  men 
as  Clough  and  Matthew  Arnold  were  too  conscious  of 
their  own  powers  to  see  what  lay  beneath  their  youth- 
ful teacher's  quiet  but  rather  peremptory  manner;  and 
in  return,  while  dough's  personality  certainly  impressed 
him,  for  he  reverted  to  it  in  his  last  days  on  earth,  it 
was  not  until  long  afterwards  that  he  learned  to  take 

1  On  the  position  and  work  of  see  Mozley's  Reminiscences,  vol.  i. 
an  Oxford  Tutor  in  1825-1835,  p.  33  if. 


1840-1846]        Arthur  Penrhyn  Stanley  89 

Matthew  Arnold  seriously.  His  closer  intimacy  with 
F.  Temple  dates  from  somewhat  later,  when  Temple  had 
become  a  Junior  Fellow. 

From  the  Easter  Term  of  1845  onwards  Balliol  Scholars 
again  take  First  Classes,  as  a  matter  of  course ;  and  it  is 
at  this  point  that  Jowett's  success  as  a  College  Tutor 
becomes  established.  The  honours  gained  by  James 
Biddell  and  Edwin  Palmer1,  both  in  1845,  mark  the 
commencement  of  a  fresh  series  of  Balliol  successes  ;  and 
the  degree  in  which  this  was  referable  to  Jowett  may  be 
gathered  from  Archdeacon  Palmer's  reminiscences 2. 

Jowett's  position  amongst  his  colleagues  appears  from 
a  recollection  of  Lord  Lingen's,  who  had  been  elected 
to  a  Fellowship  in  1841,  and  was  present  at  a  College 
meeting  in  1844,  when  plans  for  the  rebuilding  of  the 
College,  sent  in  by  Pugin  and  other  architects,  were 
under  discussion.  The  Master  (Jenkyns)  had  given  his 
opinion  in  a  knock-me-down  style,  and  Lingen  imagined 
that  no  one  was  likely  to  'take  the  bull  by  the  horns.' 
His  surprise  when  the  youthful  Tutor  began  to  speak 
was  equalled  by  his  admiration  of  the  calm,  firm,  and 
clear  manner  in  which  Jowett  expressed  an  opposite 
opinion. 

If  this  period  begins  with  Ward,  it  ends  with  Arthur 
Stanley.  It  appears  from  Ward's  Life 3  that  while  pre- 
paring his  Ideal  of  a  Christian  Church  in  1844,  he 
had  withdrawn  from  close  habitual  intercourse  with 
the  more  liberal  amongst  his  former  friends.  In  the 
summer  of  that  year  Jowett  joined  with  Stanley  in  a  tour 

1  The    late    Venerable    Edwin  to  their  intercourse,  says,  '  I  am 
Palmer,  Archdeacon  of  Oxford.  speaking    chiefly   of   the    years 

2  See  p.  102.  between  1840  and  1844.' 

3  p.  438.    Jowett,  in  referring 


90  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

to  Germany J.  An  entry  in  one  of  the  Master's  note-books, 
shortly  after  the  death  of  the  Dean  of  "Westminster,  records 
the  fact  that  at  this  time,  more  than  ever  before  or  after- 
wards, he  poured  out  his  whole  heart  to  Stanley.  They 
had  already  been  reading  Hebrew  together,  and  Stanley 
mentions  that  in  the  course  of  the  journey  the  travellers 
'  supported  their  weary  minds  by  alternate  reading, 
analyzing,  and  catechizing,  on  Kant's  Pure  Reason! 
Jowett's  familiarity  with  German  is  clearly  shown  by 
his  writing  more  than  once  in  that  language  at  some 
length  to  Arthur  Stanley,  out  of  mere  playfulness,  in 
1844-6.  The  interest  of  the  tour  did  not  culminate  for 
both  companions  at  the  same  point.  Not  the  Holy  Coat 
at  Treves  nor  the  antiquities  at  Nuremberg,  but  the 
Congress  of  Philologers  at  Dresden — 'one  of  the  most 
uninteresting  places,'  says  Stanley,  '  that  I  ever  saw ' — 
made  the  deepest  impression  upon  Jowett's  mind.  To 
converse  with  Gottfried  Hermann2,  with  Lachmann, 
Immanuel  Bekker,  and  Ewald,  made  an  era  in  his 
intellectual  life.  It  was  probably  here  also  that  the  two 
friends  consulted  J.  E.  Erdmann  of  Halle 3,  the  Hegelian 
disciple,  on  the  best  manner  of  approaching  the  works  of 
Hegel.  The  introductions  which  Stanley  had  brought 
with  him,  due  to  the  friendship  between  Dr.  Arnold  and 
the  Chevalier  Bunsen,  must  have  greatly  facilitated  all 
such  intercourse.  Nor  is  the  performance  of  the  Medea 
before  the  Philologers,  presumably  in  Greek,  to  be 
regarded  as  a  wholly  insignificant  circumstance. 

1  Life  of  Dean  Stanley,  vol.  i.  of  Nitzsch,  Brandis,  and  Corner, 
pp.  326  ff.  3  Erdmann  was  born  in  1805. 

2  To  Stanley  from  Bonn,  Janu-  His  Geschichte  der  Philosophic  was 
ary,  1849 :    '  Do  you  know,  Her-  in  course  of  publication  at  this 
mann  died  last  week,  "  der  frische  time,  and  the  Jubilee  of  his  Pro- 
lebendige    Mann  "  ? '     At    Bonn  fessorship  at  Halle  was  celebrated 
Jowett    made    the   acquaintance  in  1889. 


Z840-I846]  Tour  in  Germany  91 

In  a  letter  to  B.  C.  Brodie,  where  he  sums  up  the 
impressions  derived  from  the  tour,  he  mentions  this 

congress  as  especially  memorable : — 

'  November  5,  1844. 

'  I  hardly  know  whether  our  tour  will  much  interest  you  : 
it  went  as  far  as  Vienna,  and  with  some  disagreeables  was 
eminently  successful.  An  infinite  quantity  of  talk  was  one 
result,  for  which  there  was  some  excuse,  as  we  had  nothing 
else  to  do.  .  .  .  We  returned  by  Dresden,  where  we  saw 
old  Hermann,  who  seemed  to  be  undergoing  a  sort  of  apothe- 
osis at  the  hands  of  a  great  Philological  Association  who 
dined  and  feted  him  in  every  possible  way.  Various  others, 
Zumpt's  Latin  Grammar,  Thiersch's  Greek  Grammar,  Wunder's 
Sophocles,  Lachmann's  Greek  Testament,  who  were  formerly 
supposed  to  be  myths,  also  sprang  up  into  life  and  reality.' 

Though  Stanley  was  the  more  enthusiastic  traveller, 
his  companion  appears  to  have  had  a  chief  part  in 
planning  the  details  of  the  tour.  Stanley  would  have 
spent  the  whole  of  every  day  in  sight-seeing,  but  Jowett 
insisted  on  reserving  certain  hours  for  study :  he  had 
brought  the  still  recent  Liddell  and  Scott  amongst  his 
luggage  ;  Stanley  nicknamed  this '  the  monster  grievance,' 
in  allusion  to  a  phrase  of  O'Connell's,  and  dubbed  his 
friend  '  the  inexorable  Jowett.' 

Although  the  posthumous  influence  of  Hegel  in  his 
own  country  had  already  culminated  and  was  beginning 
to  decline,  it  was  still  powerful  with  many  students  of 
Philosophy,  and  had  begun  to  exercise  a  wide  influence 
upon  Theology.  The  complete  edition  of  his  works  and 
his  Life  by  Rosenkranz  had  lately  appeared,  and  from 
this  visit  to  Germany,  repeated  in  the  following  year, 
Jowett' s  more  intimate  acquaintance  with  this  special 
phase  of  German  philosophy  may  be  dated 1.  For  several 

1  Professor    W.    Wallace    re-      Mainz  absorbed  in  Hegel's  Preface 
members  Jowett  telling  him  how      to  the  Encyclopadie. 
he  once   stood   on   a   bridge   at 


92  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

years  after  this  he  remained  an  ardent,  though  still 
an  independent,  student  of  Hegel1.  How  critically  he 
studied  the  philosophy  even  when  most  absorbed  in  it 
appears,  however,  from  a  letter  to  Stanley  of  August  20, 
1846,  in  which  he  says  : — 

'Hegel  is  untrue,  I  sometimes  fancy,  not  in  the  sense  of 
being  erroneous,  but  practically,  because  it  is  a  consciousness 
of  truth,  becoming  thereby  error.  It  is  very  difficult  to  express 
what  I  mean,  for  it  is  something  which  does  not  make  me 
value  Hegel  the  less  as  a  philosophy.  The  problem  of  dX^eta 
TrpaKTiKTJ.  Truth  idealized  and  yet  in  action,  he  does  not  seem 
to  me  to  have  solved  ;  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  does.  Hegel 
seems  to  me,  not  the  perfect  philosophy,  but  the  perfect  self- 
consciousness  of  philosophy.' 

Dr.  Whyte's  Professorship  of  Moral  Philosophy  was 
vacated  by  Sacheverell  Johnson  in  the  autumn  of  1844, 
and  Jowett  allowed  his  name  to  be  sent  in  for  the  post : 
'  Because  I  feel,'  he  writes 2, '  that  it  would  suit  me  better 
than  any  other  Chair.'  He  does  not  consider  himself 
a  serious  candidate  if  H.  H.  Vaughan  should  stand : 
'  I  would  much  sooner  hear  him  than  teach  myself.'  But 
he  thinks  that  Vaughan' s  theological  opinions  may 
possibly  stand  in  his  way.  The  Chair  was  ultimately 
conferred  on  H.  GL  Liddell,  who  held  it  only  for  a  year. 

In  the  excitement  which  followed  Newman's  retirement 
to  Littlemore  and  the  publication  of  the  Ideal  of  a 
Christian  Church,  Stanley  and  Jowett  were  intimately 
associated,  and  while  the  elder  man  took  the  more  active 
part,  as  at  this  time  his  position  in  the  University  was 
much  more  prominent,  he  found  no  small  support  and 
help  from  consultation  with  Jowett,  who  in  November, 

1  '  One  must  go  on  or  perish  in  any  other  system  after  you  have 

the  attempt,  that  is  to  say,  give  begun  with  this.' — Letter  to  B.  C. 

up  Metaphysics  altogether.     It  is  Brodie,  September  28,  1845. 

impossible  to  be   satisfied  with  2  To  B.  C.  Brodie,  October  15. 


1840-1846]  Degradation  of  Ward  93 

1844,  was  already  assisting  him  in  the  preparation  of  a 
Protest  on  the  subject.  They  were  together  at  the  scene 
of  the  degradation  of  Ward  in  February,  1845 l.  The 
events  of  that  day  have  often  been  described,  but  no- 
where more  graphically  than  by  Dean  Stanley  and  in 
the  Memoir  of  Dean  Church,  who,  as  Junior  Proctor,  took 
a  memorable  part  in  the  proceedings.  The  latter  work 
contains  a  graphic  piece  of  description  at  first  hand 
which  may  be  quoted  here. 

'Mr.  Church's  youngest  brother,  then  an  undergraduate  at 
Oriel  .  .  .  had  stationed  himself  at  a  window  in  Broad  Street, 
in  order  better  to  view  the  proceedings ;  and  he  recalls  the 
excitement  of  the  moment,  the  sight  of  the  crowd,  which  still, 
after  the  procession  had  entered,  lingered  round  the  railings 
that  enclose  the  Theatre — the  dull  roar  of  the  shouting  which 
could  be  heard  at  intervals  from  within  the  building  itself — 
and  at  last  the  appearance  of  the  assemblage  streaming  out 
through  the  snow,  the  big  figure  of  Ward  emerging  among  the 
earliest,  with  his  papers  under  his  arm,  to  be  greeted  with 
shouts  and  cheers,  which  passed  into  laughter  as,  in  his  hurry, 
he  slipped  and  fell  headlong  in  the  snow,  his  papers  flying  in 
every  direction2.' 

The  scene  within  the  Theatre  was  vividly  described  by 
Jowett  in  a  letter  to  Brodie  written  a  day  or  two  after 
the  great  event : — 

' .  .  .  The  is6  Fevrier  came  off  last  Thursday,  a  most  tragic 
scene  which  the  inclemency  of  the  weather  contributed  to 
heighten.  1300  wild  country  parsons  are  calculated  to  have 
come  up  to  do  battle  on  the  occasion  :  the  Theatre  was  crammed  ; 
Ward  in  the  rostrum  with  Oakeley  for  prompter.  The  V.  C. 
and  Hebdomadals  take  their  places.  Ward  requests  leave 
to  speak  in  English,  which  is  granted  ;  and  then  began  an 
oration  containing  some  of  the  unpleasantest  words  to  the  ears 
of  country  clergy  that  were  ever  spoken.  He  supposed  there 

1  Life  of  Dean  Stanley,  vol.  i.  2  Dean  Church's  Life  and  Let- 
p.  340.  tens,  p.  55. 


94  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

were  men  of  all  parties  present — High  Church,  Evangelicals, 
&c.,  and  compared  the  first  with  the  Articles,  the  second  with 
the  Liturgy.  Their  difficulties  were  obvious,  but  neither 
party  had  the  least  conception  of  them.  He  then  supposed  the 
Evangelical  to  become  High  Churchman — in  what  a  new  light 
all  things  would  present  themselves  ! — his  view  of  the  Articles 
would  vary  with  his  opinions.  He  himself  took  the  Articles 
in  a  non-natural  sense,  as  they  all  did,  and  what  he  wanted 
to  show  was  that  they  were  not  all  dishonest  but  all  honest 
together.  The  rest  of  his  speech  was  a  complaint  of  the 
unfitness  of  the  Court,  and  the  impossibility  of  making  any  real 
defence  before  them.  In  conclusion,  he  warned  them  of  the 
present  state  of  the  Church  of  England,  which  might  last 
as  a  framework  to  hold  them  all,  but  if  they  pulled  out  a  single 
stone  would  fall  together. 

'  I  cannot  give  you  any  idea  of  his  manner.  He  was  as  much 
at  home  with  his  audience  as  he  is  in  the  C.  R. 1  after  dinner. 
He  read  a  passage  from  a  pamphlet  of  Maurice's  to  prove  some 
point,  which  spoke  of  himself  in  a  manner  far  from  compli- 
mentary, interjecting — "  He  means  me,  he  has  no  very  good 
opinion  of  me,  "he  says  he  would  rather  go  to  a  dame's  school 
and  be  a  dustman  than  do  what  I  have  done."  Another  time 
he  threw  in  a  parenthesis — "  Believing  as  I  do  the  whole  cycle  of 
Roman  doctrine  " — which  threw  his  audience  into  a  titter  by 
the  extreme  simplicity  with  which  it  was  said.  At  the  end 
he  stood  forth  with  prophetic  voice  and  told  us  of  what  was 
to  happen  in  "the  latter  days." 

'  The  vote  of  censure  was  passed  by  a  majority  of  770  to  380. 
Ward  again  made  a  short  speech  in  arrest  of  judgement,  but  he 
was  condemned  by  570  to  510.  Only  the  drawing  and  quarter- 
ing was  remitted.  For  the  "Horrendum  Carmen,"  a  fragment 
preserved  in  the  statute  de  dcgradatione,  runs  as  follows : — 

Hereticum  vicecancellarius  iudicet. 

Si  ad  convocatidnem  provocatur 

Provocations  certanto, 

Si  vincent,  pileum  exiiito : 

Capiiceum,  togam  detrahito  : 

Combiirito  intra  vel  extra  Universitatem. 

1  The  Balliol  Common-room. 


1840-1846]  The  Proctors'  Veto 


95 


'We  returned  home  with  the  feelings  of  men  who  had 
witnessed  an  execution  or  rather  had  themselves  been  execu- 
tioners at  an  Auto  da  Fe.  Perhaps  you  will  wonder  at  my 
levity  in  treating  of  the  whole  affair,  but  it  is  the  only  way 
I  can  revenge  myself  for  having  looked  upon  it  seriously 
a  week  ago. 

'The  tragedy  is  now  at  an  end,  and  the  comedy  or  what 
I  must  call  the  tragi-comedy  is  about  to  begin ;  but  the 
curtain  is  not  yet  drawn  up  for  the  public.  Do  you  remember 
the  end  of  the  Beggars'  Opera  where,  after  the  feelings  of  the 
spectators  are  wrought  to  the  highest  pitch,  a  sort  of  [dramatic 
revolution]  takes  place  and  by  poetic  justice  the  execution  is 
turned  into  a  WEDDING?  Between  the  first  and  second  acts 
of  the  above-mentioned  tragedy,  letters  were  brought  to  the 
prisoner  in  his  cell,  written  in  a  fair  Italian  hand, 

And  whiter  far  than  that  whereon  it  wrote 
Was  the  fair  hand  that  writ. 

'  In  a  word,  our  Confessor  is  going  to  be  married. 

'  I  do  not  of  course  blame  Ward  for  this  in  itself,  but  I  think 
he  is  very  much  to  blame  for  recklessly  writing  a  book  which 
has  thrown  us  into  confusion  and  then  doing  precisely  the 
thing  most  inconsistent  with  his  own  principles,  and  lastly, 
instead  of  retiring  from  the  contest  as  he  ought  under  the 
circumstances,  he  has  fought  it  out  to  the  last.  Either  he  felt 
himself  called  to  announce  a  high  and  important  truth  or  his 
book  is  absolutely  indefensible.  A  man  in  love  is  not  exactly 
the  person  to  breathe  the  spirit  of  Hildebrand  or  Innocent. 
I  believe  he  has  not  the  least  conception  of  the  ludicrous  point 
of  view  which  he  will  present  to  a  mocking  world,  and  am 
truly  sorry  for  it  for  his  sake.' 

Stanley  always  claimed  for  the  little  band  of  Oxford 
Liberals,  including  himself,  Jowett,Donkin,  and  Greenhill, 
the  merit  of  having  moderated  the  violence  of  that  day's 
proceedings,  not  only  by  the  moral  support  they  gave  the 
Proctors  (H.  P.  Guillemard  of  Trinity  and  E.  W.  Church 
of  Oriel)  in  the  courageous  act  of  vetoing  the  condemna- 
tion of  Tract  XC,  but  still  more  by  their  strenuous 


96  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

opposition  to  the  proposal  'that  the  Vice-Chancellor 
should  have  power  at  any  time  to  require  a  member  of 
the  University,  in  order  to  prove  his  orthodoxy,  to  sub- 
scribe the  Articles  in  the  sense  in  which  they  were  both 
first  published  and  were  now  imposed ' — which  motion 
was  withdrawn  within  a  few  days  of  the  meeting  of 
Convocation,  partly  in  consequence  of  an  opinion  of 
counsel  which  Stanley  and  others  had  obtained  \  This 
claim  on  Stanley's  part  was  admitted  thirty-one  years 
afterwards  by  the  person  most  competent  to  speak  of  it, 
when  Dean  Church  wrote  to  Dean  Stanley  in  1876.  'It  was 
a  very  generous  as  well  as  wise  action  on  your  part  and 
that  of  the  men  who  joined  with  you  V 

With  what  alacrity  Jowett  had  thrown  himself  into 
this  course  of  action,  what  part  he  took  both  in  stimu- 
lating and  guiding  it,  how  he  realized  the  full  significance 
of  the  situation,  especially  as  it  affected  the  future  of 
the  Church  of  England,  is  made  apparent  by  a  letter  to 
Stanley  written  in  the  Christmas  vacation  preceding  the 
event,  which  vividly  reflects  both  the  sanguine  eagerness 
of  the  writer  and  the  persons  of  most  account  in  Oxford 
at  that  critical  time.  It  will  also  be  observed  that  the 
chief  stress  is  laid,  not  on  "Ward's  danger,  but  on  the 
principle  involved  in  the  '  New  Test.' 

'  It  is  difficult  to  choose  out  of  the  medley  of  opinions  you 
sent  me.  I  am  glad  that  Liddell  signs. — In  a  sense  I  agree 
with  them.  all. 

'  I  agree  with  Milman  in  thinking  that  the  short  protest 
might  advantageously  be  worked  up  into  an  eloquent  docu- 
ment, when  you  have  felt  the  temper  of  the  people  who  are 
going  to  sign  it.  Meanwhile  in  its  prosaic  form  it  is  already 
printed.  I  should  send  it  round  in  MS.  to  likely  persons  as 
something  like  the  document  in  its  poetic  form  which  they 

1  Life  of  Dean  Stanley,  vol.  i.  p.  335.         2  Life  of  Dean  Church,  p.  58. 


i84o-i846]        Second  Tour  in  Germany  97 

are  hereafter  to  have.  This  latter  it  would  be  an  appropriate 
compliment  to  Milman  to  ask  him  to  assist  in  writing,  as  he 
seems  to  have  ideas  upon  the  subject. 

'  I  think  persons  innumerable  should  be  written  to  with 
respect  to  the  Test  exclusively.  What  Lake  says  is  quite 
true — Ward's  case  is  comparatively  unimportant  and  very 
unpopular.  Besides  the  protest  there  are  clearly  only  two 
things  to  be  done,  a  shower  of  pamphlets  to  be  written  by 
all  sorts  of  persons  putting  the  matter  in  every  different  light — 
also  private  letters  to  all  one's  old  College  friends,  &c.  Will 
you  write  to  Blackett,  Congreve,  and  Donkin,  urging  them 
to  canvass  against  the  Test  immediately  ;  also  to  Tait,  dropping 
the  Wardian  part  of  the  question  ? 

'Could  any  Oxford  Bishop,  Longley,  or  Denison,  be  got  to 
express  his  opinion  on  the  Test  before  it  comes  on?  Would 
it  not  be  worth  while  to  write  to  Hamilton1  and  put  a  view 
of  the  case  before  him  ?  Get  Lake  to  write  to  Burrows  and 
Trench — and  so  ascend  to  Archdeacon  Samuel 2.  .  .  .  Write  to 
H.  Vaughan3.  Might  he  not  be  got  to  write  something? — 
it  ought  to  touch  heterodox  laymen  to  the  quick.  I  trust  we 
shall  never  have  any  more  agitation.  I  suppose  it  to  be  a  duty, 
but,  as  I  have  often  said,  I  feel  peculiarly  unfit  for  it  and,  what 
is  more,  people  think  that  I  am  going  out  of  my  place,  which 
is  not  the  case  with  you.' 

In  the  Long  Vacation  of  1845,  after  visiting  Lake  in 
Germany4,  he  again  travelled  with  Stanley,  whose 
sister  joined  them  at  Ischl.  The  two  friends  had  spent 
some  weeks  together  at  Berlin,  where  Jowett  observed 
curiously  the  state  of  Prussian  politics,  the  King's  '  idea 
of  government  being  to  tread  in  the  steps  of  Frederick 
the  Great  and  preserve  Prussia  as  he  had  raised  it,  by 

1  Afterwards  Bishop  of  Salis-          4  A  letter  from  E.  Bastard  to 
bury.  F.   T.   Palgrave,   July  20,    1845 

2  Samuel  Wilberforce  became  mentions  that  Lake  was  in  Ger- 
Bishop  of  Oxford  in  1845.  many  on  account  of  health,  and 

3  Henry      Halford     Vaughan,  Jowett    had    joined    him   there, 
afterwards   Professor  of  Modern  '  much  to  his  comfort,'  as  he  had 
History.  been  very  solitary  before. 

VOL.    I.  H 


98  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

a  military  despotism.'  There  also  he  had  the  interviews 
with  Schelling  and  Neander  of  which  he  afterwards 
spoke.  He  wrote  to  Brodie  (September  28) : — 

'  I  must  say  I  was  very  much  pleased  with  the  old  "  twaddler" 
Schelling.  He  was  exceedingly  kind,  and  thoroughly  modest 
and  unassuming.  We  saw  him  several  times,  when  he  talked 
about  Coleridge,  who  he  said  was  unfairly  attacked  for 
plagiarism  from  himself  in  BlacJcwood's  Magazim.  He  struck 
me  as  having  more  of  the  poet  than  of  the  philosopher  about 
him — and  far  more  genius  than  strength  of  character.  I  do 
not  know  anything  about  his  philosophy,  and  to  judge  from 
Schelling's  face  it  is  probably  somewhat  dreamy,  but  it  was 
evident  that  there  is  so  much  party  spirit  that  it  was  impossible 
to  form  a  judgement  of  what  you  heard,  and  it  is  in  his  favour 
that  Steffens,  who  was  universally  respected,  was  his  follower 
to  the  last.' 

With  reference  to  this  tour  Mrs.  Vaughan  (then 
Catherine  Stanley)  writes  (1894): — 

'  My  sister  and  I  went  out  alone  to  Ischl — where  we  met 
him  and  my  brother — and  where  we  remained  with  them 
a  fortnight.  After  which,  we  went  on  our  way — but  what 
that  "way  "was,  I  am  ashamed  to  say  I  cannot  remember. 
I  know  we  went  across  Bohemia,  and  we  were  most  anxious 
to  get  into  Italy  by  the  Stelvio  ;  but  were  prevented  by  my 
brother's  inability  to  get  up  early  enough  to  accomplish  it  in 
the  only  time  at  our  disposal.  He  and  B.  J.  were  deep 
in  those  days  in  the  study  of  Hebrew,  and  could  hardly 
be  persuaded  to  look  up  from  their  books  and  contemplate 
the  beauties  of  the  scenery  through  which  we  passed.  We 
used  to  exclaim,  "Oh,  do  look!  how  beautiful!"  and  they 
would  hastily  raise  their  eyes,  cry  out,  "Yes,  very  fine,"  and 
as  hastily  return  to  the  contemplation  of  their  Grammar.  In 
those  days  B.  J.  was,  as  I  have  said,  the  most  charming  friend 
and  companion  it  was  possible  to  have  :  never  out  of  temper, 
never  depressed,  never  looking  weary  or  discontented— always 
full  of  the  most  interesting  subjects  of  conversation.  He  was 
delightful.1 


i84o-i846]      Hebrew — Theological  Essays  99 

The  Hebrew  Grammar  *,  with  Jowett' s  name  written  in 
ink  over  Stanley's  in  pencil,  and  with  pencilled  annota- 
tions by  B.  J.  (chiefly  a  running  analysis  of  the  Hebrew 
syntax),  is  now  in  the  possession  of  Lady  Lingen,  to  whom 
Jowett  gave  it  when  he  had  himself  relinquished  the 
study  at  the  end  of  1846,  finding  that  to  be  a  critical 
Hebrew  scholar  required  more  time  than  he  could  give. 
He  always  said  that  even  a  smattering  of  Hebrew  was 
worth  while :  '  it  gave  you  a  new  idea  of  language.'  He 
was  studying  the  Hebrew  Bible  in  the  autumn  of  1846, 
when,  according  to  a  letter  of  E.  Bastard  to  F.  T. 
Palgrave,  he  had  been  working  very  hard  at  Hebrew  : — 

'  The  day  he  went  away  from  here,  he  was  reading  (as  we 
afterwards  heard)  the  Hebrew  Bible  as  he  went  along, — and 
ended  by  leaving  it  in  the  coach  V 

Shortly  before  this,  while  working  at  Ewald's  Hebrew 
Grammar,  he  had  written  to  Stanley, '  I  am  hard  at  work 
at  Hebrew  and  really  begin  to  find  some  enjoyment  in 
reading  it.'  But  at  the  opening  of  1847  he  wrote,  '  I  find 
Hebrew  too  trying  to  the  eyes  to  be  pursued  to  any  great 
extent,  and  am  accordingly  reading  the  Republic  for 
lectures  next  Term.' 

His  letters  to  Stanley,  a  few  of  which  are  appended 
to  this  chapter,  make  it  manifest  that  the  influence 
of  the  elder  upon  the  younger  friend  was  more  than 
reciprocated.  When  Stanley  was  preparing  his  sermons 
on  the  Apostolic  Age,  Jowett  was  consulted  at  every 
step,  and  his  letters  reveal  in  a  remarkable  way  the 
character  and  working  of  his  own  mind. 

He  was  ordained  priest  in  1845.  Earlier  in  that  year, 
he  had  been  occupied  in  writing  some  Theological  Essays; 

1  Gesenius,  ed.  Rodiger,  Leip-      reading  party  who  visited  Jowett 
zig,  1845.  and    his    pupil    at    Beaumaris, 

2  Bastard  was  one  of  Riddell's      August  16,  1846. 

H  2 


ioo  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

and  in  1846  his  systematic  study  of  the  New  Testament 
was  stimulated  by  an  idea  which  Stanley  had  suggested 
to  him,  that  he  should  contribute  a  series  of  Essays  to  the 
volume  which  his  friend  was  preparing  for  the  press. 
This  particular  design  was  not  carried  out,  as  Jowett 
ultimately  declined  to  publish  in  this  way ;  but  it  was 
agreed  that  they  should  produce  a  joint  work  in  Theology 
at  some  future  time.  Meanwhile,  in  what  he  afterwards 
called  their  'furious'  correspondence  he  communicates 
his  anxious  thoughts  on  New  Testament  criticism. 

Stanley,  in  his  Life  of  Dr.  Arnold  (1844),  had  laid 
special  stress  on  the  importance  which  his  master  at- 
tached to  the  critical  study  of  Theology,  and  his  intention 
of  setting  on  foot  a '  Rugby  Edition '  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles 
under  his  own  superintendence1.  There  can  be  no 
reasonable  doubt  that  the  work  now  undertaken  had 
some  reference  to  this  unfulfilled  design  of  the  great 
Head  Master.  In  one  of  their  afternoon  walks,  the  two 
friends  were  caught  in  a  heavy  shower  of  rain  and  driven 
to  take  refuge  in  a  quarry.  It  was  under  these  circum- 
stances, as  Jowett  afterwards  told  W.  L.  Newman,  that  in 
eager  conversation  the  plan  of  the  work  was  sketched 
in  outline.  Nine  years  elapsed  before  the  publication  in 
part  of  what  was  then  projected.  The  plan  was  more 
than  once  modified  after  its  main  outlines  had  been 
agreed  upon,  and  at  one  time  it  was  enlarged  to  a 
scheme  for  a  complete  work  on  the  New  Testament.  In 
a  letter  of  1846,  Jowett  writes  to  Stanley  : — 

'I  have  been  thinking  a  good  deal  about  our  Opus  Magnum, 
and  trust  that  by  God's  blessing  we  may  be  able  to  bring  it  to 
some  result.  I  propose  to  divide  it  into  two  portions,  (a)  the 
Gospels,  and  (6)  the  Acts  and  Epistles,  to  be  preceded  respec- 
tively by  two  long  prefaces,  the  first  containing  the  hypothesis 

1  Arnold's  Life  and  Correspondence,  p.  163  of  sixth  edition. 


1840-1846]  Jozvett  and  Stanley  IOT 

of  the  Gospels,  and  a  theory  of  inspiration  to  be  deduced  from 
it;  the  second  to  contain  the  "subjective  mind'5  of  the  Apo- 
stolic age,  liistoriscli-psychologiscli  dargestellt.  I  think  it  should 
also  contain  essays  on  such  subjects  as  "eschatology,"  "the 
demoniacs,"  &c.,  which  cannot  be  properly  effigiated  in  notes.' 

In  the  autumn  of  1846  he  had  a  vision  of  a  '  flight  to 
Ireland  with  Stanley,  to  examine  into  the  constitution 
and  Revenues  of  Trinity  College,  &c.,'  which  was  broken 
off  by  some  change  in  Stanley's  plans.  The  letters 
to  Stanley  belonging  to  this  period  which  are  preserved 
are  very  numerous,  and  they  dwell  on  many  points  of 
merely  temporary  interest.  But  those  not  here  included 
contain  some  morsels  which  it  would  be  a  pity  to  lose  : 
as  this  on  self- improvement  (1846) : — 

'Can  any  summary  rule  be  given  more  than  this,  every 
day  and  every  hour  to  frame  yourself  with  a  view  to  getting 
over  a  weakness  ?  How  a  person  does  this  can  only  be  learnt 
from  experience,  not,  I  think,  to  be  intruded  on  by  others. 
But  the  line  you  quote  in  the  Preface  to  Arnold's  Life,  "That 
moveth  all  together  if  it  move  at  all  V'  seems  to  me  ever  to  be 
borne  in  mind  in  all  these  things.  If  a  defect  be  anything 
more  than  a  trick,  character  is  too  elastic  to  admit  of  any 
mechanical  contrivance  for  getting  rid  of  it.' 

Or  again  this  passing  remark  on  the  words  'I,  if  I  be 
lifted  up  from  the  earth,' — '  Does  it  not  seem  as  if  the 
Crucifixion  and  the  glory  of  Christ  were  absolutely 
identical  in  St.  John's  Gospel  ?  ' 

From  another  letter  (December,  1846)  it  appears  how 
much  he  built  on  having  Stanley  at  his  side  in  Oxford  : — 

'  I  am  delighted  to  think  that  you  are  committed  to  Oxford, 
as  you  say  :  <rvv  re  SiT  e'p^o^ieVw'2  makes  one  independent  at  least. 
Where  shall  we  be  at  the  end  of  the  year  ?  Perhaps  not  living  ; 

1  Observe  that  Wordsworth  is  only  quoted  at  second  hand. 

2  '  Two  going  on  together.' 


102  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

otherwise,  much  where  we  are,  getting  a  little  deeper  and 
filling  up  a  little  more  in  speculation, — and  reforming  the 
kitchens  of  University  and  Balliol.' 

The  position  of  Jowett  in  Balliol  and  his  growing 
credit  as  a  teacher  may  be  further  illustrated  by  the 
following  reminiscences  contributed  by  the  late  Arch- 
deacon Palmer:— 

'Balliol  College  in  1842,  when  I  came  into  residence  as 
a  Scholar,  was  in  many  respects  very  unlike  the  Balliol 
of  the  present  day.  The  Chapel  and  the  Hall  and  more 
than  half  of  the  other  buildings  have  been  erected  since  that 
time,  and  a  College  Garden  has  been  created  by  the  union 
of  two  gardens,  then  walled  off  for  the  use  of  the  Master  and 
of  the  Fellows  respectively,  with  an  irregular  piece  of  ground 
called  the  Grove,  which  was  absolutely  devoid  of  beauty, 
though  covered  with  trees.  Moreover  the  number  of  Com- 
moners in  the  College  is  at  least  twice  as  large  now  as  it  was 
in  my  day,  and  the  number  of  Scholars  and  of  Exhibitioners 
has  been  doubled  also.  But  these  differences,  however  striking, 
are  only  superficial.  In  more  important  respects  the  College  has 
preserved  a  uniform  character  for  a  good  deal  more  than  half 
a  century.  Its  Masters,  Tutors,  and  Lecturers  have  devoted 
themselves  ungrudgingly  to  its  service,  and  among  its  under- 
graduates the  proportion  of  reading  men  to  idlers  has  been 
greater  than  anywhere  else  in  Oxford.  But  I  am  asked  to  set 
down  briefly  my  own  undergraduate  recollections. 

'In  Michaelmas  Term,  1842,  when  I  first  came  up,  there 
were  only  four  undergraduate  Scholars  in  residence,  four  besides 
myself,  James  Kiddell,  Matthew  Arnold,  Edward  Walford,  and 
C.  S.  Lock.  Lock  was  a  Blundell  Scholar  from  Tiverton. 
The  rest  of  us  came  from  public  schools  of  greater  name. 
Indeed,  this  was  the  case  with  all  the  open  Scholars  who  were 
elected  from  1838  to  1845  inclusive,  except  William  Young  Sellar. 
He  was  a  Snell  Exhibitioner  from  Glasgow  University.  Of 
the  other  fifteen  Scholars  elected  in  those  eight  years,  five  came 
from  Eugby,  three  from  Shrewsbury,  three  from  Charterhouse, 
two  from  Eton,  one  from  Harrow,  and  one  from  Winchester. 


1840-1846]  Archdeacon  Palmer's  Reminiscences  103 

Yet  no  preference  was  given  by  the  statutes,  nor  any  favour 
shown  by  the  electors,  to  public  school  men.  The  emoluments 
of  a  Balliol  Scholarship  were  reckoned  in  those  days  at  £30 
a  year  or  thereabouts.  Scholars  were  exempt  from  tuition 
fees,  and  had  an  allowance  for  maintenance  of  IDS.  a  week 
during  actual  residence.  The  competition,  however,  for  these 
Scholarships  was  at  least  as  great  as  for  Scholarships  at  any 
other  College  in  the  University,  although  at  some  Colleges 
(such  as  Trinity,  for  example)  the  emoluments  were  much 
more  considerable.  The  Snell  Exhibitioners,  then  as  now, 
formed  an  important  element  in  the  College.  There  were 
ten  of  these  Exhibitions,  and  there  were  usually  five  or  six 
undergraduates  holding  them  in  residence.  I  may  mention 
among  my  own  contemporaries,  John  Campbell  Shairp,  after- 
wards Professor  of  Poetry  ;  H.  A.  Douglas,  afterwards  Bishop 
of  Bombay  ;  William  Young  Sellar,  afterwards  Professor  of 
Humanity  at  Edinburgh ;  Francis  Sandford,  and  Patrick  Cumin, 
who  filled  successively  the  post  of  Secretary  to  the  Committee 
of  Council  on  Education.  Many  or  most  of  the  Commoners 
were  public  school  men  ;  Eton  in  particular  was  largely  repre- 
sented. Not  a  few  were  reading  men,  whose  pursuits  and 
ambitions  were  similar  to  those  of  the  Scholars  and  Exhibi- 
tioners. In  consequence,  the  Scholars  and  Exhibitioners  did 
not  form  a  distinct  set,  although  the  Scholars  had  a  table  to 
themselves  in  Hall.  There  was  a  fast  set  (as  we  called  it), 
which  consisted  of  ten  or  a  dozen  men,  whose  amusements 
were  more  expensive  than  those  of  the  rest ;  but  there  was 
no  hard  line  of  demarcation  even  here,  some  of  the  reading 
men  were  more  or  less  intimate  with  the  members  of  the 
fast  set.  There  were  also  a  few  men  who,  for  one  reason  or 
another,  did  not  mix  much  with  their  neighbours.  So  far, 
however,  as  I  remember,  the  bulk  of  the  College,  some  forty  men 
at  least,  Scholars,  Commoners,  and  Exhibitioners,  associated 
freely  together.  Breakfast-parties  and  wine-parties,  small  or 
great,  at  which  we  all  met  (though  seldom  all  at  once),  went 
on  every  day.  It  is  my  impression  that  I  myself  rarely 
breakfasted  alone,  and  rarely  failed  to  pass  an  hour  or  more 
after  dinner  in  company.  But  our  breakfast-parties  broke 
up  at  ten,  and  the  amount  of  wine  drunk  at  our  wine-parties 


104  Life  of  Benjamin  Jozvett          [CHAP,  iv 

was  inconsiderable  ;  and  consequently  our  social  habits  did  not 
interfere  with  the  reading  of  those  who,  like  myself,  wished  to 
read.  The  men  of  whom  I  speak — they  were  too  numerous 
to  be  called  a  set — were  the  representatives  of  Balliol  in 
the  eyes  of  the  University  at  large.  It  was  by  them  that  the 
reputation  of  the  Colle0e  was  maintained  in  the  Schools,  on 
the  river,  and  in  the  cricket-field.  Football  was  not  yet  played 
at  Oxford.  It  is  an  illustration  of  the  union  between  Scholars 
and  Commoners  that  there  was  almost  always  a  Scholar  in  the 
College  boat.  Before  I  began  to  reside,  Balliol  had  become 
conspicuous  for  success  in  University  examinations  and  in  the 
competition  for  prizes.  My  own  generation  carried  on  this 
tradition.  It  was  not,  however,  till  somewhat  later  that 
Balliol  Commoners  were  found  in  the  First  Class  as  often  as 
Scholars  or  Exhibitioners. 

'  I  pass  from  undergraduates  to  dons.  Dr.  Jenkyns,  who  was 
Master  from  1819  to  1854,  though  the  subject  of  many  stories 
which  represent  him  in  a  ridiculous  light,  was  a  remarkably 
efficient  and  successful  head.  We  laughed  much  at  him  our- 
selves, but  we  also  liked  him  much.  He  had  the  interest  of  the 
College  thoroughly  at  heart,  and  the  success  of  each  individual  in 
it  was  a  matter  of  concern  to  him.  Moreover,  he  had  a  great 
amount  of  practical  shrewdness.  Edward  Cooper  Woollcombe, 
William  Charles  Lake,  and  Benjamin  Jowett  were  our  Tutors. 
Frederick  Temple  was  our  mathematical  lecturer,  and  some- 
times lectured  in  other  subjects  also.  Lake,  Jowett,  and 
Temple  all  began  to  teach  in  Balliol  in  October  Term,  1842 — 
the  Term  in  which  I  came  up.  Woollcombe  had  been  Tutor 
along  with  Archibald  Campbell  Tait  and  James  Gylby  Lons- 
dale  during  the  previous  year,  in  which  Dale  had  been  mathe- 
matical lecturer.  In  those  days  each  undergraduate  was 
assigned  to  one  special  Tutor  for  the  whole  period  of  his 
residence,  but  it  was  only  for  Latin  and  Greek  composition 
that  he  went,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  his  own  Tutor ;  for  his 
lectures  he  went  to  this  or  that  Tutor,  as  the  Tutors  might 
arrange  among  themselves.  Undergraduates  had  then  no 
choice  in  the  matter.  On  an  average  each  undergraduate  was 
required  to  attend  two  lectures  every  week-day.  There  were 
no  off-days  but  Sundays.  We  had  abundant  evidence  that  all 


1840-1846]  Archdeacon  Palmer's  Reminiscences  105 

our  teachers  were  thoroughly  in  earnest,  and  that  they  not 
only  desired  to  make  us  work,  but  also  worked  hard  them- 
selves. I  was  one  of  Jowett's  pupils.  So  was  James  Eiddell, 
who  was  already  known  for  his  remarkable  scholarship,  and 
in  after  years  had  no  superior  in  Oxford  in  that  department. 
Jowett  did  not  spare  his  labour  in  preparing  us  both  for 
University  Scholarship  examinations.  I  had  to  bring  him 
during  my  first  year  Latin  or  Greek  composition  three  times 
a  week.  I  believe  he  would  have  made  me  come  to  him  still 
oftener,  if  he  had  not  been  aware  that  I  was  working  for  the 
same  examinations  with  a  private  Tutor,  Mountague  Bernard, 
who  was  then  a  B.A.  Scholar  of  Trinity.  Just  before  the 
Christmas  vacation,  1842,  Jowett  put  into  the  hands  of  Kiddell 
and  myself  a  plan  of  work  for  that  vacation  which  must 
have  cost  him  a  considerable  amount  of  time  and  thought. 
Numerous  pieces  of  composition,  prose  and  verse,  Greek  and 
Latin,  were  prescribed  ! ;  selected  portions  of  Greek  and  Latin 
authors  were  to  be  studied  or  learned  by  heart ;  one  or  two 
books  on  philological  subjects  were  to  be  read.  Whether 
he  gave  the  same  holiday  task  to  other  pupils  at  the  same 
time  I  do  not  remember.  I  believe  that  Riddell  and  I  followed 
out  his  plan  completely  ;  I  know  that  we  did  all  the  composition 
prescribed,  and  that  Jowett  looked  it  all  over  with  us  at  the 
beginning  of  the  next  Term.  In  dealing  with  composition, 
it  was  his  method  to  criticize  rather  than  to  correct.  Of 
course  he  pointed  out  flagrant  errors,  but  else  he  did  not  go 
much  into  detail.  He  looked  rather  to  the  general  style,  and 
(when  the  composition  was  original)  to  the  treatment  of  the 
subject.  He  took  great  pains  also  with  the  criticism  of  his 
pupils'  prize  compositions.  It  was  the  practice  then  (strange 
and  indefensible  as  it  now  seems)  for  College  Tutors  and  other 
friends  to  see  and  comment  upon  compositions  which  were 
to  be  sent  in  for  the  Chancellor's  prizes  or  Sir  Roger  Newdi- 
gate's.  Such  comments  must  often  have  given  a  material 
advantage  to  those  competitors  whose  fortune  it  was  to  have 

1  The  list  includes  a  large  pro-  Latin  Odes,  &c.,  and  passages  for 
portion  of  original  subjects  for  verse  translation  from  Shake- 
Latin  letters,  Greek  dialogues,  speare,  Milton,  and  the  Bible. 


io6  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

good  advisers ;  but  at  that  time  nobody  thought  the  practice 
unfair.  I  remember  that  in  my  first  year  Jowett  condemned 
absolutely  a  Latin  poem  of  mine,  and  made  me  write  another. 
My  second  attempt,  however,  did  not  please  him  better,  and 
ultimately  the  first  draught  went  in,  with  such  improvements 
as  I  was  able  to  introduce.  I  am  bound  to  add  that  its  failure 
justified  his  unfavourable  opinion.  Jowett's  pupils  always  felt 
that  they  were  in  the  hands  of  a  good  scholar,  but  I  do  not 
think  that  we  attributed  to  him  pre-eminence  in  this  respect 
over  other  good  scholars  in  the  University.  The  same  thing 
may  be  said  as  regards  his  College  lectures  generally  in  those 
days.  They  were  the  lectures  of  a  well-read  and  able  man, 
but  they  did  not  give  us  an  impression  of  learning  or  of  power 
to  teach  which  was  singular  either  in  kind  or  in  degree. 
Indeed,  I  have  a  livelier  recollection  of  lectures  which  I  heard 
from  other  teachers  in  Balliol  during  my  first  two  years. 
One  thing  I  remember,  however,  which  was  peculiar  to  Jowett 
among  our  Lecturers,  and  it  is  a  thing  which  distinguished 
him  through  life.  It  was  inventiveness.  He  was  fertile  in 
experiments.  At  one  time  he  made  a  select  class  turn 
Johnson's  Easselas  into  Latin  before  him  without  preparation  ; 
at  another,  he  made  us  construe  Demosthenes'  speech  against 
Midias  at  sight.  He  tried  his  hand  at  the  explanation  of 
Sophocles'  Choric  Metres.  He  introduced  us  to  Wolfs  Homeric 
theory.  He  took  the  Septuagint  as  his  text-book  for  a  lecture 
on  the  Old  Testament,  Greswell's  Harmony  of  the  Gospels  for 
a  lecture  on  the  New.  It  may  have  been  my  own  fault,  but 
I  cannot  remember  any  particular  advantage  which  we  derived 
from  these  various  experiments.  A  time  came,  however,  at 
last  (I  am  unable  to  fix  the  exact  date)  when  Jowett  began 
a  course  of  lectures  which  made  upon  me  and  others  a  very 
different  impression  from  any  which  he  had  made  upon  us 
before.  His  subject  was  the  Fragments  of  the  early  Greek 
philosophers  ;  but  the  lectures  did  not  close  without  a  mention 
of  Socrates  and  Plato.  They  were  delivered  to  a  class  which 
consisted  of  ten  or  twelve  men — Scholars,  Commoners,  and 
Exhibitioners.  We  had  never  till  then  heard  him  lecture  on 
any  philosophical  subject.  We  were  struck  by  the  insight 
which  he  showed  into  the  speculations  of  ancient  thinkers, 


1840-1846]  Archdeacon  Palmer's  Reminiscences  107 

and  by  the  felicity  of  expression  which  enabled  him  to  make 
them  intelligible  to  us.  These  lectures  gave  him  in  our  eyes 
a  position  all  his  own.  I  believe  myself  that  his  interpretation 
of  Greek  philosophy,  of  which  this  was  the  first  specimen, 
was  the  true  foundation  of  his  greatness  in  the  eyes  of  Balliol 
men  and  of  the  Oxford  world.  I  suspect,  moreover,  that  his 
success  in  this  department  brought  to  himself  a  consciousness 
of  power  which  gradually  unlocked  his  tongue,  so  that  later 
generations  of  pupils  were  able  to  enter  into  his  thoughts 
and  feelings  more  than  the  men  of  my  time  could  do.  His 
popularity  followed  the  growth  of  his  intellectual  reputation  ; 
it  did  not  precede  it.  No  doubt  the  pains  which  he  took  with 
his  early  pupils  showed  kindness  as  well  as  conscientiousness, 
but  his  manner  in  dealing  with  them  was  such  as  to  repel 
rather  than  to  attract.  During  my  undergraduate  years  he 
was  singularly  silent  and  undemonstrative.  To  shy  men  he 
was  positively  alarming.  I  remember  myself  one  occasion 
on  which  he  invited  me  to  take  a  walk  with  him.  The 
number  of  words  exchanged  between  us  during  that  walk  was 
incredibly  small,  and  I  believe  that  it  was  a  relief  to  both 
when  we  regained  the  College  gate.  The  experiment  was  not 
repeated,  nor  did  I  ever  feel  at  home  with  him  before  I  took 
my  degree  and  became  a  Fellow.  Others  less  shy  than  myself 
may  have  found  less  difficulty  in  understanding  him  ;  but  I  do 
not  think  he  would  ever  in  those  days  have  been  described  as 
a  popular  tutor.  Something  of  this  early  taciturnity  remained 
with  him  through  life,  though  it  grew  less  and  less  as  years 
went  on.  Meantime,  however,  opportunities  multiplied  for 
the  display  of  his  kindness  in  other  ways  than  the  promotion 
of  his  pupils'  studies ;  and  that  kindness  was  always  ready, 
always  unstinted.  It  made  an  impression  upon  those  who 
were  least  able  to  appreciate  his  intellectual  gifts.  His  inde- 
pendence of  mind,  his  originality,  his  fullness  of  resources, 
attracted  to  him  the  abler  men.  At  last  even  his  fits  of 
silence  came  to  have  a  charm  of  their  own,  and  to  give  weight 
to  the  pithy  utterances  which  succeeded  them. 

'I  remember  Wall  saying  of  Jowett  in  1854,  ''It  is  to  him 
that  the  College  owes  its  constant  supply  of  Firsts  in  Greats."  ' 


io8  Life  of  Benjamin  Joivett         [CHAP,  iv 


LETTEKS,    1840-1846. 
To  W.  A.  GREENHILL. 

Good  Friday  [1841]. 

I  send  the  books  for  Dr.  Arnold  \  also  the  five  pounds  which 
you  kindly  lent.  I  have  not  thanked  you  for  the  note  which 
you  sent  with  them,  but  have  often  thought  of  it  since. 
I  can  never  forget  the  way  in  which  our  acquaintance  began 
more  than  four  years  ago,  and  only  hope  that  if  you  are 
ever  in  need  you  will  put  me  to  the  proof.  You  may  be  quite 
sure  you  never  can  be  in  my  debt. 

Wishing  you  a  happy  Easter, 

I  am,  yours  ever, 

B.  JOWETT. 

To  W.  A.  GREENHILL. 

34  LEE  ROAD,  BLACKHEATH, 

April  21,  1842. 

...  I  was  very  much  pleased  by  your  kind  note  on  my 
birthday,  although,  considering  how  evil  the  last  two  years 
of  my  life  have  been,  it  is  unpleasant  to  be  reminded  how  old 
one  has  grown.  In  about  a  week  I  am  going  to  bury  myself 
in  Paris — it  is  rather  a  relief  to  me  to  get  away  from  people, 
and  I  still  build  up  dreams  of  steady  reading  and  devotion. 
This,  you  will  think,  is  rather  a  misanthropical  strain,  but  I  do 
not  mean  to  indulge  any  such  feelings.  I  hope  the  study 
of  the  Greek  Testament  and  regularity  in  diet,  &c. ,  may  bring 
me  into  a  better  state  of  mind  and  body.  Change  of  scene 
does  not  seem  to  me  of  much  use,  but  I  mean  to  go  to  Paris 
to  be  quiet  and  get  away  from  all  agitating  subjects  : — 

'  Est  Ulubris,  animus  si  non  te  deficit  aequus.' 

This  is  rather  like  spinning  a  letter  '  out  of  one's  own  bowels,' 
but  as  the  subject  may  possibly  be  not  so  agreeable  to  you  as  it  is 

1   Dr.  Arnold  was  Mrs.  Greenhill's  uncle. 


Letters,  1840-1846  109 

natural  to  me,  I  will  say  nothing  more  about  it.  We  are  very 
busy  in  getting  my  brother 1  ready  for  India,  as  he  is  to  start 
in  about  three  weeks.  I  think  it  is  a  nice  prospect  for  him 
—his  pay  is  quite  sufficient  to  support  him,  and  it  is  a  great 
advantage  of  the  East  India  service  that  his  prospect  of  rising 
depends  almost  entirely  on  his  diligence  and  ability.  He  is 
very  much  pleased  himself,  and  notwithstanding  your  pithy 
remark  that  it  was  a  better  employment  to  cure  than  to  kill, 
considering  his  disposition,  I  think  he  has  made  the  best  choice. 

I  am  sorry  to  hear  you  are  so  downcast  at  Mrs.  Greenhill's 
absence  ;  it  is  one  of  the  misfortunes  of  married  life,  I  suppose — 
just  sufficient  to  let  you  know  your  happiness. 

Will  you  kindly  give  me  any  introductions  you  can  at  Paris 2  ? 
You  mention  M.  Miller,  which  may  be  of  real  service  to  me  in 
case  I  am  unable  to  get  an  introduction  to  the  library  from  my 
other  friend. 

To  W.  A.  GREENHILL. 

BONN,  June  28,  1842. 

.  .  .  One  chief  reason  I  have  for  writing  at  this  moment  is 
that  I  have  just  received  in  a  letterfrom  Tait  the  news  of  Arnold's 
death.  It  must  have  thrown  you  and  Mrs.  Greenhill  into 
overwhelming  trouble.  I  was  quite  shocked  to  hear  of  it — so 
very  sudden,  and  a  man  who  seemed  so  made  to  enjoy  this 
world  that  you  might  wish  him  long  life  for  its  own  sake.  No 
person  could  see  him  without  feeling  an  interest  about  him. 
I  shall  never  forget  his  noble  appearance  in  the  Theatre  at  the 
inaugural  lecture.  It  is  pleasing  indeed  to  remember  that  he 
was  the  first  person  who  really  conducted  a  public  school  on 
Christian  principles.  I  should  as  soon  doubt  the  truth  of 
religion  itself  as  doubt  that  such  a  man  had  gone  to  receive 
his  reward. 

One  reason,  I  would  just  hint,  why  I  don't  write  to  you 
oftener  is  that  I  do  not  like  writing  about  religion  ;  and  it 
seems  so  cold  and  prosy  to  write  to  an  intimate  friend  about 

1  William  Jowett.  1840.     See  Life  of  E.  B.  Pusey, 

2  Greenhill  had  been  pursuing      vol.  iii.  p.  7. 
his  medical  studies  at   Paris  in 


no  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

anything  else.  I  doubt  not  that  there  may  be  many  persons 
to  whom  religious  communion  with  one  another  is  of  great 
good  ;  for  myself,  I  fear  that  I  have  received  all  the  good  that 
I  can  gain  from  it.  For  the  future  I  would  rather  go  on  my 
way  alone,  and,  to  avoid  self-deceit,  trust  to  God  only. 

Your  introduction  to  M.  Miller  was  of  great  use,  as  it  enabled 
me  to  go  to  the  library  and  read.  What  little  I  saw  of  him  he 
seemed  a  very  learned  man,  but  he  was  so  much  engaged  that 
this  was  not  much,  and  the  medium  of  communication  between 
us  was  so  imperfect  that  I  am  afraid  he  thought  me  something 
strange.  ...  A  French  officer  with  whom  I  used  to  dine,  and 
two  or  three  Oxford  men,  were  quite  enough  society  for  me. 
Upon  the  whole  I  am  very  glad  that  I  went  to  Paris,  where 
I  was  getting  a  great  deal  better,  and  should  be  so  at  present  if 
I  had  not,  like  an  ass,  tired  myself  with  walking  along  the 
Moselle  last  week,  and  have  not  got  over  the  effects  of  it  yet. 
Nothing  can  be  more  delightful  than  our  present  situation  at 
Bonn — all  our  windows  command  a  view  of  the  Drachenfels. 
I  never  was  in  any  place  I  liked  so  well.  The  professors  here 
seem  disposed  to  be  very  kind.  Yesterday,  on  the  strength 
of  Tait's  acquaintance  with  him,  I  went  to  call  on  the 
illustrious  Nitzsch.  I  always  find  myself  struck  dumb  in  the 
presence  of  a  great  man,  but  Nitzsch  was  so  very  kind  it  was  quite 
easy  to  get  on  with  him.  He  talked  a  good  deal  and  very  well 
about  the  English  Church,  though  from  not  being  able  to  read 
English  he  has  but  an  imperfect  idea  of  things.  Afterwards 
I  went  to  see  Booking,  who  most  kindly  gave  me  an  introduction 
to  another  professor  who,  he  said,  spoke  excellent  English. 
They  were  both  shocked  and  grieved  to  hear  of  Arnold's  death. 
Booking  seemed  quite  affected  by  it. 

...  I  suppose  you  are  too  much  a  man  of  peace  to  tell  me 
anything  about  the  new  Hampden  row '.  The  tumult  has  by 

1  In  May,  1842,  the  Heads  of  delivered  a  lecture  which  Stanley 

Houses   proposed  to   repeal  the  strongly  condemned.     "  But,"  he 

Statute  depriving  Dr.  Hampden  adds,  ..."  I  still  vote  for  him." 

of  his  right  to  vote  in  the  nomina-  The  proposed  repeal  was  rejected 

tion  of  Select  Preachers,  &c.     In  by   334   votes   to   214.' — Life  of 

the  interval  before  the  meeting  Dean    Stanley,   vol.    i.    pp.    310, 

of  Convocation,    'Dr.    Hampden  311. 


Letters,  1840-1846  in 

this  time  dwindled  to  a  calm,  and  left  you  in  the  quiet  of 
a  Long  Vacation.  From  all  accounts  Hampden's  conduct  seems 
to  have  been  very  bad.  I  hope  that  Newman  and  his  friends 
will  become  more  liberal— or  perhaps  '  charitable '  is  the  right 
word — not  only  towards  individuals,  but  in  their  own  views 
of  parties ;  if  so,  I  think  the  work  they  will  have  done  will 
be  almost  one  of  unmixed  good. 

To  B.  C.  BEODIE. 

BALLIOL,  November  24,  1844. 

.  .  .  Various  new  things  have  happened  here  since  I  wrote 
last.  In  the  first  place,  the  report  about  Newman's  leaving 
the  English  Church  is  not  immediately  true,  though  it  was 
generally  believed,  and  I  incline  to  think  that  it  is  founded  on 
fact.  A  committee  of  Heads  of  Houses  are  sitting  on  the  fat 
fellow's  book l,  who  seems  likely  to  have  hard  measure  dealt  to 
him  if  the  inextricable  confusion  of  the  statutes  does  not  save 
him.  The  Heads  of  Houses  are  not  over  scrupulous  either 
legally  or  morally  in  their  method  of  proceedings.  Whately 
has  been  backing  them,  which,  considering  his  liberal  views,  is, 
I  think,  a  mistake.  It  has  been  much  discussed  among  us 
whether  Stanley  shall  write  a  pamphlet  on  the  occasion. 
Maurice 2  of  Guy's  Hospital  was  anxious  that  we  should  draw  up 
a  genuine  Liberal  protest  against  persecution  of  the  Newmanites, 
in  which  he  says  he  himself,  Archdeacon  Hare,  &c.,  will  join. 
The  said  protest  we  wish  to  represent  as  coming  from 
F.  Maurice  himself.  Honestly  confessing  that  I  am  rather 
proud  of  having  helped  to  draw  up  a  document  abounding  in 
Liberal  sentiments,  I  will  send  it  you  if  it  ever  gets  into  print, 
which  is  rather  uncertain,  as  matters  are  only  in  embryo  yet. 

I  must  tell  you  another  thing  which  is  to  me  a  matter  of 
great  interest.  Yesterday  I  went  to  dine  with  Coleridge  :  just 
such  a  dinner-party  as  you  and  I  were  at  together  six  months 
ago.  Froude  was  there,  as  on  the  former  occasion  ;  but  I  was 
greatly  amazed  to  find  that  he  has  become  regularly  Germanized, 
and  talked  unreservedly  about  Strauss,  miracles,  &c.  Of  course 

1  W.  G.  Ward's  Ideal  of  the  Christian  Church. 

2  Frederick  Denison  Maurice. 


ii2  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

you  will  not  mention  this  (a  caution  which  it  seems  useless  to 
give  at  Giessen J ).  I  cannot  quite  tell  how  entire  his  change 
of  opinion  is  ;  he  seemed  to  take  such  a  very  artistical  view  of 
things  that  his  conversation  gave  me  no  satisfaction,  and,  if  I 
do  not  do  him  injustice,  a  want  of  the  earnestness  natural  to 
a  person  who  feels  what  an  aweful  thing  it  is  to  disbelieve  all 
he  has  formerly  held  and  believe  something  new.  I  am  told 
that  he  justifies  his  Lives  of  the  Saints  and  the  mythic  view 
of  the  miracles  contained  in  them  by  saying  that  he  did  it 
to  realize  to  people  the  absurdity  of  their  belief.  Therefore 
what  you  heard  him  say  at  dinner  was  ctpuveta.  Newman 
has  disowned  the  editorship  of  the  tract2,  so  that  I  suppose 
he  is  aware  of  all  this. 

This  is  regular  gossip,  I  fear  very  uninteresting  to  you. 
It  is  too  bad  to  make  your  sublime  spirit,  soaring  with  Prospero 
in  a  world  of  its  own  creation,  descend  to  the  commonplace 
of  Oxford  life.  A  propos  of  Prospero,  as  a  lady  would  say 
who  did  not  know  how  to  connect  the  next  sentence  of  a  letter, 
I  went  to  see  Charles  Kemble  read  the  Merchant  of  Venice, 
from  which,  in  comparison  with  Macready,  one  did  not  get  much. 
It  struck  me  that  there  was  a  good  deal  of  difficulty  in  explain- 
ing the  character  of  Shy  lock — a  sort  of  Italian  Jew  (the  Jew 
perfect,  and  Shakespeare  seems  to  have  seized  what  Newman 
hints  at  in  one  of  his  sermons,  the  ideal  of  Jewish  character 
in  Jacob),  lago-like  malignity  and  cunning,  vulgar  simplicity, 
and  violent  passion,  and  withal  something  of  '  the  form 
left  to  pine  away  amid  an  altered  world'  which  arouses 
one's  sympathy  for  him.  There  tis  something  very  deep  in 
the  idea  of  strict  law  as  opposed  to  justice,  the  only  notion 
of  morality  which  the  Jews  appear  to  have.  In  the  trial  scene 
this  is  admirably  brought  out.  I  wish  theologians  understood 
the  relation  of  Judaism  and  Christianity  half  as  well. 

.  .  .  Your  friend  Charles  Vaughan  is  a  candidate  for  Harrow — 
rather  late  in  the  field,  so  that  if  the  Trustees  have  not  great 
discernment  he  will  be  beaten  by  Jelf,  whom  people  here 
consider  the  winning  man. 

1  Where  Brodie  was  studying. 

2  i.  e.  J.  A.  Froude's  contribution  to  the  Licet  of  the  Saints. 


Letters,  1840-1846  113 

To  B.  C.  BEODIE. 

BALLIOL,  December  23,  1844. 

I  was  very  glad  to  hear  from  you,  and  find  that  you  were 
happily  settled  at  Giessen.  For  solitariness  I  am  almost  as 
lonely  as  you  can  be,  as  there  is  not  a  living  creature  in 
College,  except  the  cats,  who  are  wild  with  hunger. 

The  politics  of  the  place  have  been  developing  themselves 
rapidly  since  I  last  wrote.  About  the  middle  of  next  Term  the 
country  clergy  are  to  be  summoned  to  Oxford,  red  with  anger, 
fiery  hot  with  Protestant  zeal,  to  vote  (i)  that  certain  passages 
of  Ward's  book  are  objectionable,  (2)  that  Ward  is  to  lose 
his  degrees,  (3)  that  all  gentlemen  of  suspicious  character  shall 
be  summoned  by  the  Vice-Chancellor  to  sign  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles  '  in  eo  sensu  quo  et  primitus  editos  fuisse  constat  et 
universitas  imposuit.'  It  seems  probable  that  the  rage  of  the 
said  country  clergy  will  carry  the  two  first,  but  perhaps  the 
common  sense  of  the  residents  may  prevail  against  the  test. 
The  Heads  of  Houses  Xa/3eiv  d/xa'vovs  eto-tv  17  p-eOievai l  ;  that  is 
to  say,  more  fond  of  getting  than  resigning  a  power.  I  strongly 
suspect,  however,  that  they  will  find  themselves  mistaken  in 
this  mischievous  and  unjust  attempt.  No  deprivation  of 
degrees  can  take  away  the  Fellowship,  which  is  what  they  seem 
to  be  aiming  at,  and  without  this  it  is  a  mere  brutum  fulmen. 
They  might  have  put  him  in  the  Ecclesiastical  Court,  or  in  the 
Vice-Chancellor's  Court,  so  that  there  is  no  excuse  for  tiying  him 
by  Convocation.  He  is  allowed  to  be  heard  in  his  own  defence. 

I  cannot  quite  agree  in  the  serene  view  you  incline  to  take 
of  the  sufferings  of  the  Newmanites.  I  am  quite  aware  that 
I  have  not  very  much  in  common  [with  them],  except  so  far  as 
every  person  who  wishes  to  be  in  earnest  has  with  every  one 
else  who  has  the  same  wish.  I  think  of  course  that  you  must 
guard  against  being  made  a  cat's-paw  of,  and  perhaps  their 
principles  would  not  allow  them  to  do  anything  of  the  same 
sort  for  a  Latitudinarian 2 ;  moreover,  they  showed  a  very 
ugly  spirit  about  Hampden  ;  bul  nevertheless  it  seems  but 
right  to  see  justice  done  to  conscientious  men,  and  very 
expedient  when  it  is  the  dominion  of  Ogilvie  and  the  Heads 

1  Aeschylus,  Persae,  690.  3  See  pp.  237  ff.,  306,  309  ff. 

VOL.  I.  I 


ii4  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

of  Houses  which  is  to  be  feared,  and  not  of  the  Newmanites, 
who  are  beginning  to  scatter  like  sheep  without  a  shepherd. 

I  mentioned  to  you  a  book  which  I  had  been  reading1  in 
praise  of  J.  M.  Turner  on  landscape  painting.  I  have  read  it 
all  through  with  the  greatest  delight ;  the  minute  observation 
and  power  of  description  it  shows  are  truly  admirable.  His 
theory  in  general  is  that  landscape  painting  must  be  true,  and 
not  a  mere  romance  ;  and  considering  the  infinite  variety  of 
nature  and  the  individuality  of  the  minutest  section,  the 
only  way  in  which  true  effects  can  be  given  is  by  suggestion, 
not  by  distinct  drawing,  which  can  never  produce  in  the 
mind  the  idea  of  infinity  always  found  in  nature.  There  is 
a  great  deal  on  the  form  of  clouds,  &c.,  which  gives  one,  so  to 
say,  some  true  principles  not  only  of  art  but  of  nature.  Since 
I  read  it  I  fancy  I  have  a  keener  perception  of  the  symmetry 
of  natural  scenery.  The  book  is  written  by  Ruskin,  a  child  of 
genius  certainly. 

...  Is  there  any  chance  of  your  being  found  at  Rome  on 
St.  Peter's  day  next  summer  ?  I  think,  as  the  Long  Vacation 
is  a  temptation,  I  am  very  likely  [to]  be  there.  I  sun  myself 
with  the  thought  of  an  Italian  sky  all  the  year  round  ;  it  would 
make  life  happier  to  have  seen  Rome  and  stood  on  the  Tarpeian 
Rock  and  under  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's. 

Concerning  the  *  Heilige  Rock 2 '  about  which  you  make 
merry,  I  do  not  quite  see  the  cause  of  your  mirth  unless 
you  believe  it  to  be  an  imposture,  which  is  very  improbable, 
even  though  there  are  twenty-four  of  them.  I  think  it  would 
be  more  probable  to  account  for  the  whole  twenty-four  on 
a  Straussian  hypothesis  than  to  suspect  imposture  in  this 
particular  case. 

Stanley  is  writing  a  pamphlet,  Donkin  is  writing  a  pamphlet, 
Ward  is  writing  a  pamphlet,  Eden  is  writing  a  pamphlet, 
F.  Maurice  is  writing  a  pamphlet,  Hussey  is  writing  a  pam- 
phlet ;  in  short,  all  the  world  are  pamphleteering. 

Concerning  matters  serious  allow  me  to  say  one  word.  I  feel 
very  deeply  that  one  cannot  live  without  religion,  and  that  in 

1  Modern  Painters,  by  a  Graduate  of  Oxford. 
8  The  Holy  Coat  at  Treves. 


Letters,  1840-1846  115 

proportion  as  we  believe  less,  that  little,  if  it  be  only  an  aweful 
feeling  about  existence,  must  be  more  constantly  present  with 
us ;  as  faith  loses  in  extent  it  must  gain  in  intensity,  if  we 
do  not  mean  to  shipwreck  altogether.  I  go  about  from  one 
subject  to  another  just  as  if  we  were  talking  together,  and  am 
well  aware  how  feeble  and  unmeaning  my  words  are  to  bring 
us  to  any  further  agreement  on  these  subjects,  but  I  cannot 
help  often  thinking  about  you,  and  sometimes — it  is  at  least 
a  harmless  superstition — remembering  you  in  prayer. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

BOWNESS,  January,  1845. 

Concerning  your  pamphlet1  I  have  spoken  to  Tait,  who 
thinks  that  he  cannot  possibly  judge  without  reading  it.  I  do 
not  think  his  opinion  of  much  value  in  such  a  matter.  Ask 
Donkin  or  Price 2  or  Clough,  if  you  want  a  good  opinion. 

All  vulgar  reasons  seem  to  me  in  favour  of  publishing.  It 
will  be  a  hit ;  even  the  Newmanites  will  be  propitiated  : — 'We 
have  read  with  pleasure  Mr.  Stanley's  most  seasonable  pam- 
phlet, '  will  be  the  leader  of  the  next  week's  English  CJmrcJiman, 

The  Bishop  of  N.'s  son  and  Dr.  A.'s  biographer  cannot  be 
worse  off  than  he  is  with  reference  to  suspicions  of  Latitudi- 
narianism.  The  'gens  Newmanica'  possesses  in  an  eminent 
degree  the  virtue  ascribed  to  our  Master  in  the  Statutes,  '  saga- 
citer  odorat,'  sc.  Hereticos. 

Also,  there  are  many  persons  like  Donkin,  Mr.  Myers  of 
Keswick,  and  myself,  who  would  be  glad  to  see  what  they  feel 
and  think,  well  said  for  them.  I  do  not  doxibt  that  it  would 
have  a  great  sale  and  gain  its  author  much  honour  if  it 
were  published.  My  reasons  against  are — the  greatness  of 
the  subject,  which  I  quite  believe  you  will  one  day  have  the 
opportunity  of  putting  out  in  a  better  form.  A  pamphlet  is 
inadequate  to  such  an  extensive  work,  which  should  be  the  end, 
not  the  beginning,  of  a  life.  I  think  you  may  mar  it  in  some 

1  See    Life    of  A.   P.   Stanley,  the   Ccrham  Case  in  Edinburgh 

vol.    i.    p.    335.     The    pamphlet  Review,  July,  1850. 
was    not   published,    but    seems          2  Bonamy     Price,     afterwards 

to  have  furnished  some   of  the  Professor  of  Political  Economy 

materials  for  Stanley's  article  on  at  Oxford. 

I   2. 


n6  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

measure  by  publishing  now,  and  cannot  imagine  you  will  regret 
it  [the  delay]  ten  years  hence,  if  you  keep  the  same  purpose 
steadily  in  view  and  do  not  let  yourself  fall  back  into  listless- 
ness  and  inactivity.  Moreover,  the  question  now  is  rather  legal 
than  constitutional,  whether  it  is  consistent  with  the  law  of  the 
Church  of  England  to  hold  Eoman  doctrine.  The  inexpediency 
of  deciding  the  question  cannot  alter  the  fact  when  decided. 

...  In  the  last  five  years,  if  they  had  not  fallen  into  a  maze 
of  casuistry,  they 1  would  have  brought  things  exactly  to  the 
point  most  favourable  to  the  real  interests  of  the  Church  as 
well  as  of  themselves.  They  have  never  given  up  No.  90, 
and  if  they  did  so  now,  it  would  seem  like  an  attempt  to 
draw  the  Anglo-Catholics  to  Borne  who  were  caught  by  it. 
And  '  honesty  versus  casuistry '  is  a  point  I  am  very  unwilling 
to  give  up  directly  or  indirectly  in  favour  of  Protestantism. 
The  legal  ground,  or  expediency  ground,  is  one  that  Oakeley 
does  not  distinctly  take,  but  clings  to  Bishop  Montague  and 
Ward's  sophistical  explanations.  Also,  I  am  persuaded  that 
Ward  and  Oakeley  are  almost  certain  to  go  in  any  case,  and 
would  soon  cease  to  have  any  practical  idea  of  doing  good  in 
the  Church  of  England.  Oakeley's  distinction  of  holding  as 
distinct  from  teaching2  is  not  to  be  tolerated  for  a  moment, 
and  yet  it  is  the  only  way  in  which  his  Komanist  subscription 
could  possibly  be  allowed. 

All  this  would  strongly  determine  me  in  your  case  to 
do  nothing.  'In  quietness  and  confidence  shall  be  your 
strength.'  I  hope  you  will  not  think  what  I  have  said  harsh. 
The  evils  of  Newman's  going  I  think  very  great — it  would  be 
a  mournful  fact  in  the  history  of  the  Church  of  England3. 
Still,  the  assault  from  without  would  be  so  much  stronger  that 
it  could  hardly  bring  us  back  to  the  days  of  orthodox  misrule. 

1  The  Tractarian  party.  as  an  Anglican,  which  he  shortly 

2  Oakeley   of    Balliol,    Ward's  afterwards  abandoned  to  join  the 
chief  supporter,  and  contributor  Church  of  Rome.     His  article  on 
to  the  British  Critic,  at  this  time  Jewel  was  '  a  landmark  in  the 
minister  of  Margaret  Chapel,  Lon-  progress  of  Roman  ideas '  (Dean 
don,  had  written  a  pamphlet  (The  Church's  Oxford  Movement,  p. 322). 
Subject  of  Tract  XC  Historically          3  J.    H.    Newman    joined  the 
Examined)  defending  his  position  Church  of  Rome  in  October,  1845. 


Letters,  1840-1846  117 

This  is  the  end  of  my  prose,  which  you  must  receive 
with  all  possible  suspicion,  as  coming  from  a  person  who  feels 
daily  how  unfit  he  is  to  advise  anybody,  and  has  a  natural 
prejudice  on  the  side  of  '  quiescence.' 

To  B.  C.  BRODIE. 

...  I  have  been  reading  Hegel's  Lectures  on  the  History  of 
Philosophy,  which,  although  I  only  half  understand,  seem  to  me 
to  give  a  deeper  and  more  continuous  account  of  philosophy 
than  any  book  I  have  seen.  The  manner  in  which  he  traces  the 
growth  of  self-reflection  and  the  progress  of  mental  analysis  is 
admirable.  The  other  day  I  had  to  give  a  lecture  on  the 
Atomic  philosophy  which  recalled  to  my  mind  what  you  told 
me  of  Faraday's  doctrine  of  forces.  To  get  rid  of  the  infinite 
divisibility  of  matter  he  must  make  abstraction  of  matter, 
space,  &c.,  but  the  idea  of  cause  which  remains  seems  so  abstract 
that  I  do  not  see  how  to  get  back  again  into  the  physical  world. 
...  'Si  quid  habes  imperti.'  I  did  not  understand  you  at  the 
time,  but  suppose  something  of  this  kind  must  be  meant,  only 
I  wonder  that  any  physical  philosopher  should  hit  upon  this 
method  of  solving  the  difficulty. 

To  B.  C.  BRODIE. 

BOWNESS  [ON  WINDERMERE], 

March  28,  1845. 

The  country  here  you  probably  know,  so  I  will  not  describe 
it.  A  week  ago  there  was  a  severe  frost,  the  sky  I  think 
the  clearest  I  ever  saw  in  England,  so  that  the  lake  seemed 
quite  like  an  Italian  landscape.  There  is  nothing  in  the  way 
of  natural  beauty  I  admire  so  much  as  the  clear  Italian  sky, 
which  you  seem  to  look  through,  not  at,  and  into  which 
all  objects  seem  to  project.  The  lake  here  is  very  beautiful 
on  a  small  scale,  especially  towards  Ambleside,  where  you 
have  rich  outlines  of  the  mountains  and  shadows.  On 
Monday  I  went  over  to  Fox  How  and  saw  the  Arnolds,  and 
am  going  again  in  a  few  days,  when  I  hope  to  get  a  sight 
of  Wordsworth. 


n8  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

I  quite  agree  in  what  you  say  about  Pimlico  churches  and 
modern  Luthers.  I  wonder  people  do  not  feel  the  curse  of 
having  no  old  to  entwine  with  the  new.  The  said  Pimlico 
structures  very  soon  become  cracked  and  show  the  stuff  they 
are  made  of.  For  my  own  part  I  get  rather  to  hate  logic, 
certainly  when  applied  as  it  usually  is  to  these  subjects,  and 
hope  there  is  a  point  of  view  in  which  you  may  place  yourself 
above  it  without  being  a  fool  or  a  madman.  I  think  it  is  one 
of  the  chief  charges  against  the  Church  of  Kome,  that  it  has 
denned,  and  subdefined,  and  deduced,  and  subdeduced  until 
religion  has  come  to  be  something  absolutely  different  from 
the  religion  of  the  Bible,  not  merely  as  to  the  things  believed, 
but  as  to  the  mode  of  believing.  Systematized  theology  they 
put  in  the  place  of  the  philosophy  of  religion. 

You  see  I  am  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  a  kind  of  shady 
dissertation  to  fill  up  my  letter.  Old  Ward's  marriage  you 
will  have  seen  by  the  papers  is  known  to  all  the  world — 
sonnets  are  addressed  to  him,  the  country  newspapers  have 
impromptus  on  the  subject,  the  matter  has  ended  in  a  universal 
roar  of  laughter.  I  am  afraid  it  is  a  bad  thing  for  him,  which 
it  would  not  be  on  your  view,  if  he  would  resign  himself 
to  his  better  nature  and  become  a  domesticated  animal.  This, 
however,  he  is  not  disposed  to  do.  I  fear  he  will  go  on 
despised  by  all  the  world — 'Hildebrand  the  married  man'- 
with  the  worst  effect  on  himself  if  not  upon  others. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

September,  1845. 

I  have  read  part  of  Ewald  and  part  of  Bunsen's1  work. 
'  Give  me  a  bit  of  paper  and  a  pencil,  and  I'll  sketch  you  a  plan 
of  a  church.  It  won't  take  five  minutes,  I  assure  you.'  It 
seems  to  show  a  great  ignorance  of  the  truth,  'Ecclesia 
nascitur,  non  fit.'  Surely  it  must  be  an  idle  attempt  to  con- 
struct any  outward  form  of  a  church  which  is  not  simply 
an  expression  of  religious  tendencies  in  the  people.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Ewald  I  like  much  better  than  I  did  at  first.     About 

1  Die  Verfassung  der  Kirche  der  Zukunft,  published  in  1845. 


Letters,  1840-1846  119 

the  miracles  it  may  be  said  that  if  there  is  such  uncertainty 
about  the  common  facts,  you  cannot  possibly  have  evidence 
sufficient  to  warrant  you  in  believing  the  miracles.  But  is 
not  this  unfair,  because  the  history  and  the  miracles  mutually 
support  each  other?  The  miracles,  however  improbable  in 
themselves,  make  the  history  probable.  And  is  it  not  rather 
the  general  question  of  the  probability  of  miracles  in  such  an 
age  and  dispensation  than  the  evidence  for  particular  miracles 
with  which  we  are  concerned?  Whether,  e.g.,  it  is  not 
natural  that  these  '  vestiges  of  creation '  might  be  perpetually 
going  on  until  the  spiritual  world  were  set  forth  in  Chris- 
tianity?— whether  it  would  not  be  contrary  to  analogy  that 
the  God  who  was  believed  to  dwell  in  the  thunder  should 
not  show  Himself  in  the  thunder  ?  Does  it  seem  consistent 
to  suppose  such  vast  changes  in  men's  minds  and  feelings 
about  religion,  and  to  suppose  no  changes  in  the  laws  of  nature 
corresponding  to  it,  but  a  harmony  of  subject  and  object  which 
consists  in  the  ceaseless  play  of  the  subject  around  a  never- 
varying  object  ?  This  seems  to  me  the  strongest  and  the 
real  ground  of  defending  the  Old  Testament  miracles. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

i  GREAT  GEORGE  STREET, 

December,  1845. 

I  return  Donkin's  letter,  which  entertained  me  much.  May 
I  venture  one  or  two  criticisms  1  ?  If  a  certain  friend  of  ours 
saw  that  passage  about  the  resurrection  of  our  Lord,  would 
he  not  at  once  say,  *  How  can  I  be  responsible,  in  what  appears 
to  me  defect  of  evidence,  for  not  believing  a  fact  ? '  To  which 
I  imagine  the  only  answer  would  be  that  this  fact  is  so  in- 
separably connected  with  certain  doctrines  that  approve  them- 
selves to  our  moral  and  religious  sense,  that  you  must  take 
the  fact  with  the  doctrine.  Suppose  him  to  answer — I  do  not 
see  this  connexion  ;  you  may  be  right,  but  you  only  prove  a 
lack  of  historical  or  metaphysical  faculties  in  me  for  not  agreeing 
with  you.  Can  that  be  essential  to  Christianity,  the  unbelief 

1  On  a  writing  of  Stanley's,  probably  based  on  the  pamphlet 
referred  to  on  p.  115. 


120  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

of  which  does  not  imply  any  moral  guilt,  but  a  want  of 
acuteness  and  good  sense  ?  I  have  not  any  tendency  to  doubt 
about  the  miracles  of  the  New  Testament,  but  this  seems 
to  me  a  very  difficult  question.  May  not  the  answer  perhaps 
be  that  of  Erdmann,  that  the  ideas  are  the  essential,  and  that 
the  facts  are  a  manifestation  of  the  ideas  ?  If  so,  and  I  think 
this  is  partly  true  at  all  events,  it  does  matter  very  much 
what  we  believe,  even  though  we  doubt  about  our  Lord's 
resurrection. — Concerning  Hegel,  I  doubt  not  that  Donkin's 
ignorance  is  far  more  than  my  knowledge.  I  have  only 
a  glimpse  of  his  meaning,  but  feel  restless  until  I  can  get 
deeper  into  it.  Erdmann's  advice,  if  you  remember,  was  to 
read  first  the  Phanomcnologie,  then  the  Logic,  and  then 
the  Philosophic  der  Religion.  The  Logic  I  have  been  toiling 
at  since  I  came  back,  but  it  is  almost  impossible  to  get  any 
idea  of  it  in  the  details  without  first  getting  an  idea  of  the 
whole.  I  thought  the  Geschichte  der  Philosophic  gave  me 
great  help  at  first.  As  a  history  I  suppose  it  is  bad,  because 
it  sees  Hegelianism  everywhere,  and  brings  all  systems  under 
its  categories.  It  is  an  exposition  of  himself  stufenweise, 
his  philosophy  being  the  result  of  all  former  ones,  which  are 
subordinated  as  '  moments '  and  are  ever  in  process  of  transition. 
Without  the  history  of  philosophy  in  which  to  realize  them, 
his  abstractions  and  concretions  would  seem  quite  unmeaning. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

DULOE,  LISKEARD,  December,  1845. 

Samuel  of  Oxford  is  not  unpleasing,  if  you  will  resign 
yourself  to  be  semi-humbugged  by  a  semi-humbug.  He  was 
very  kind,  and  would  do  great  good  if  he  could  but  be  per- 
suaded to  keep  off  speculative  matters.  In  the  latter  respect 
Mauricianism,  diluted  by  Trench,  and  still  further  watered 
by  himself,  seems  to  be  the  prevailing  tone.  But  he  is  a  man 
of  the  world  and  a  gentleman,  and  above  all  '  head-of-a-house ? 
delusions,  and  exactly  agrees  with  us  about  the  College  for 
poor  students.  Nevertheless,  with  all  his  practical  ability  he 
shows  weakness  of  character — e.  g.  he  said  he  would  print  his 
charge  if  we  wished  it ;  but  some  of  us  did  not  wish  it,  so 


Letters,  1840-1846  121 

the  charge  was  not  printed.     I  must  tell  you  of  a  conversation 
that  occurred  between  Trench  and  one  of  the  candidates  \ 

Scene  I.     TJie  Garden,  Cuddesden. 

Trench.  Has  Newman's  book 2  produced  much  effect  at  Oxford  ? 

Cand.  Yes,  a  great  one.  Very  able,  do  you  not  think  ?  How 
very  striking  the  last  page  is  ! 

Trench.  Humph  !  Yes,  touching.  The  chief  thing  that  strikes 
me  about  the  book  is  the  aweful  amount  of  scepticism  it  dis- 
closes. It  will  do  great  good,  the  publication  of  it. 

Scene  II.     Palace,  Cuddesden. 

The  Bishop.     One  of  the  Candidates. 

Bish.  The  Irvingites  use  this  passage  ('  He  gave  some  Apostles  ') 

to   prove   the  institution    of   a   sevenfold    ministry.     How 

would  you  answer  such  an  argument  ? 
Cand.  It  refers  to  an  accidental  state  of  the  Church  ;  there  was 

no  regular  ministry  at  the  time. 
Bish.    You   do  not   believe,   then,   that  the   Episcopal   Order 

existed  from  the  beginning  ? 
Cand.  No  ;  but  that  it  sprang  up  gradually. 
Bish.  (Here  followed  a  speech  which  lasted  five  minutes.}     Let  me 

hear  what  you  say  in  answer  to  this  ? 
Cand.  Bishop  and  Presbyter  are  used  convertibly  in  the  New 

Testament.     This   place  shows   that  there  was   no  regular 

ministry.     There  is  no  mention  of  Bishops  in  the  Apostolical 

Fathers  ;  and  it  seems  more  natural  that  it  should  grow  up, 

like  other  institutions,  gradually. 
Bish.  But  might  not  the  thing  be  older  than  the  name?     It 

may  be  in  human  things  that  it  is  more  natural  institutions 

should  grow  naturally,  but  not  so  in  divine.     And  Ignatius — 
Cand.  Have  you  seen  the  Syriac  Version  ? 
Bish.   And  did  you  see  the  places  at  the  end  which  confirm 

from  the  Syriac  the  authority  of  the  other  Epistles  ?     (This 

is  a  mis-statement.) 
Bish.  One  more  question  I  wish  to  ask.     In  what  sense  do 

you  sign  the  Articles  ?     Certain  modes  I  consider  dishonest, 

without  at  all  wishing  to  narrow  their  limits. 
Cand.  (A  pause.}     In  Paley's  sense. 

1  What  follows  is  clearly  auto-  gree.  Richard  Chenevix  Trench 
biographical :  cf.  p.  240.  Jowett  (afterwards  Archbishop  of  Dublin) 
took  Priest's  Orders  in  the  winter  was  Bishop  Wilberforce's  examin- 
of  1845.  Every  Fellow  of  Balliol  ing  Chaplain, 
wasboundbystatutetobeordained  2  The  Development  of  Christian 
within  four  years  of  his  M.A.  de-  Doctrine  (1845). 


122  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  iv 

Bish.  What  does  Paley  say  ? 

Cand.  That  it  is  an  absurdity  if  the  Legislature  meant  to  say 
that  you  assented  to  four  or  five  hundred  disputed  proposi- 
tions. It  only  meant  that  you  were  an  attached  member 
of  the  Church  of  England. 

Bish.  No,  I  don't  mean  that  I  require  assent  to  four  or  five 
hundred  disputed  propositions,  &c.  &c. 

Cand.  One  question  I  should  like  to  ask.  Do  you  think  that 
Dr.  Arnold  was  justified  in  signing  them  ? 

Bish.  Yes. 

I  have  omitted  the  civilities,  but  the  candidate  informed  me 
that  nothing  could  be  more  bland  and  amiable  than  the  Bishop's 
manner  to  him. 

Scene  III.     The  Tea  Table,  Cuddesden. 

Bish.  Sir  E.  Peel's  scheme  when  he  went  out  of  office  is  said 
to  have  been  a  total  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  Malt  Tax, 
Sugar  Duties,  &c.  This  would  be  a  great  sacrifice  for  the 
landed  interest,  &c.  But  the  poor  would  be  the  gainers 
by  it. 

Cand.  The  clergy,  my  Lord,  would  be  great  sufferers. 

Bish.  Yes,  I  am  afraid  they  would  ;  in  all  changes  they  suffer. 

Cand.  But  if  the  poor  are  the  gainers,  the  clergy  ought  not 
to  complain. 

To  complete  the  portraiture  of  Samuel  of  Oxford,  I  will  add 
two  extracts  from  his  sermon  : — 

'All  saving  truth  is  contained  in  Scripture,  not  the  germ 
of  it,  not  to  be  developed  out  of  it,  but  is  in  it.  If  you 
go  to  the  Primitive  Church  or  to  Fathers  or  to  Councils, 
there  is  no  amount  of  superstition  to  which  you  may  not 
be  led  on.' 

'  Scripture  is  to  be  interpreted  by  the  Creeds  and  Catholic 
consent. ' 

.  .  .  The  Bishop  is  an  excellent  man,  overflowing  with 
goodness ;  but  I  doubt  whether  anybody  can  do  him  perfect 
justice  who  has  not  a  spice  of  humbug  in  his  composition  and 
therefore  a  sympathy  with  the  sort  of  thing. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

SONNING,    [1846]. 

I  am  here  in  that  '  temple  of  peaceful  industiy '  at  Sonning. 
I  do  not  know  whether  '  indolence '  might  not  partly  express 


Letters,  1840-1846  123 

it  too.  It  is  a  charming  place,  and  the  vicar J  is  full  of  virtues 
and  kindness  ;  it  is  delightful  to  see  him  get  on  so  well  with 
his  people  and  with  all  the  world. 

I  stopped  a  night  in  London,  first  with  Lingen,  second  with 
Brodie  and  Vaughan 2 ;  the  latter  greatly  pleased  me.  I  am 
afraid  we  are  on  different  tacks  in  Moral  Philosophy,  and 
though  I  cannot  compare  with  him  in  power  and  originality, 
I  doubt  whether  he  is  in  the  right.  The  truth  is  he  is  '  The 
Sheepskin '  still — works  alone,  thinks  alone,  would  analyze 
the  origin  of  our  moral  ideas  in  the  individual  rather  than 
the  world  at  large3.  He  will  write  a  more  striking  book 
for  not  having  read  German,  and  certainly  a  more  readable 
one,  which  will  be  a  real  accession  to  English  Philosophy  ; 
but  unless  a  man  could,  like  Descartes,  pluck  out  one  by  one 
the  ideas  he  already  has,  I  do  not  see  what  gain  there  can 
really  be  in  travelling  alone,  and  probably  losing  the  way 
on  the  same  ground  with  the  German  thinkers. 

PS. — I  have  forgotten  to  mention  a  sudden  revolution  in 
my  plans.  Last  Thursday  Scott  appeared,  and  seeing  that  he 
is  blind  and  solitary,  I  thought  it  would  be  better  to  go  and 

1  The   Rev.   Hugh   Pearson,   a  quent  letter  :  '  Did  I  tell  you  that 
great  friend  of  Stanley's  and  of  I  saw  H.  H.  V.  in  London  and  had 
Jowett's.   See  vol.  ii.  p.  195.  a  talk  with  him  ?    He  looks  upon 

2  Henry  Halford  Vaughan  (see  morality  as  having  its  roots  in 
p.  97,  note  3).    He  was  a  man  of  pleasure    and    pain,    the   flower 
whom  great  things  were  expected.  which  it  bears  being  the  work  of 
He  wrote  a  metaphysical  work,  imagination  or  reflection  on  those 
of  which  the  MS.  was  destroyed  in  first  impressions.  His  great  object 
some  mysterious  way   before   it  seemed  to  be  to  find  out  the  origin 
could  be  published.      He  left  be-  of  our  moral  ideas— looking  for 
hindhimthreevolumesofemenda-  them,  however,  only  in  the  indi- 
tions  on  Shakespeare.  'The  Sheep-  vidual,  not  in  the  history  of  the 
skin 'is  a  nickname  for  him,  which  world.'     Dean  Liddell,  to  whom 
recurs  several  times  in  the  corre-  portions  of  the  work  were  read 
spondence,  perhaps  suggested  by  in  MS.,  understood  it  to  be  an 
his    rough    shock    of    lightish-  attempt    to    trace    the    upward 
coloured  hair.     He  was  acknow-  growth    of    morality   in    human 
ledged  to  be  the  most  brilliant  history,  finding  its  consummation 
of  all  Dr.  Arnold's  pupils.  in  Christ. 

3  This  is  repeated  in  a  subse- 


124  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett 

see  him  for  a  few  weeks,  as  my  presence  is  not  absolutely 
necessary  at  *  the  seat  of  war  \ ' 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

[1846.] 

About  the  Evangelical  Alliance  I  do  not  know  anything, 
but  the  views  of  all  parties  concerned  in  it  must  be  so  essen- 
tially sectarian  that  it  can  hardly  hold  together  very  long. 
I  suppose  it  is  a  sign  that  the  Dissenters,  like  the  Church, 
are  getting  out  of  their  shallow  formalism  and  ceasing  to 
declaim  about  the  State  Church,  as  we  on  our  part  about  our 
venerable  Establishment.  A  more  interesting  question  to  me 
is  the  more  general  one — What  is  the  real  cause  and  what 
the  future  fortunes  of  the  English  Dissenters?  .  .  .  One 
fancies  it  [Dissent]  must  be  some  kind  of  cross  between 
Puritanism,  formalism,  Anglicanism,  political  liberty,  and 
Church  authority,  &c.  ;  its  constant  degeneration  into  Uni- 
tarianism,  and  never  into  Latitudinarianism,  is  a  remarkable 
feature.  A  small  admixture  of  religio  sceptici  would  greatly 
improve  it ;  at  present  it  is  equally  tenacious  of  all,  from  the 
Beast  in  the  Kevelation  down  to  'John  the  Immerser  came 
preaching  in  the  wilderness.'  It  is  evidently  a  good  deal 
shaken  at  present,  and  getting  out  of  place  like  the  Church 
itself.  .  . 

1  Balliol. 


CHAPTER  V 

TUTORSHIP  (continued).    COMMENTARY  ON  ST.  PAUL. 
1846-1850 

(Aet.  29-33) 

ATTACHMENT  of  his  pupils  to  him  —  His  interest  in  their  works 
—  Hegel  and  Comte  —  Lectures  in  Political  Economy  —  Plato  at 
Oxford  —  Paris  in  1848—  Conversation  with  Michelet,  &c.  —  Theological 
Essays  —  Long  Vacations  —  The  Oban  reading  party  —  Alexander  Ewing, 
Bishop  of  Argyll  —  Notes  on  the  Romans—  Death  of  William  Jowett  — 
A  pupil's  record  of  conversations  —  Letters. 


preceding  years  have  witnessed  the  formation  and 
ripening  of  opinion  and  character.     It  is  only  now 
that  these  begin  to  be  fully  realized  in  action. 

Jowett's  ascendency  in  Balliol  reached  a  new  stage 
about  the  year  1846.  In  the  Long  Vacation  of  that  year, 
spent  partly  in  helping  Scott,  his  former  Tutor,  who  had 
lost  his  wife  some  months  before,  and  partly  in  charge 
of  a  pupil  at  Beaumaris,  he  was  more  isolated  than 
heretofore  1.  From  Scott's  rectory  of  Duloe,  near  Liskeard, 
he  wrote  to  Stanley  :  — 

'Many  thanks  for  all  your  kindness,  to  which  I  am  not  at 
all  insensible  ;  perhaps  it  is  better  and  more  useful  that  we 
should  work  alone  sometimes.  It  cools  the  nervous  fever  of 
intellectualism.  I  have  already  begun  to  form  projects  for  next 
Long  Vacation.' 

1  The  solitude  at  Beaumaris  Riddell  and  his  Balliol  reading 
was  broken  by  a  visit  from  James  party  on  August  16. 


126  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

Amongst  his  pupils  of  the  next  few  years  there  was  a 
little  inner  circle,  whose  relation  to  him,  partly  because 
they  most  needed  his  support,  was  peculiarly  intimate. 
Chief  among  these  were  "William  Y.  Sellar,  Alexander 
Grant,  T.  C.  Sandars,  "W.  S.  Dugdale,  F.  T.  Palgrave, 
Theodore  Walrond,  E.  B.  D.  Morier,  and  H.  J.  S.  Smith. 
It  was  within  this  group  that  there  sprang  up  what 
outsiders  designated  a  sort  of  '  Jowett- worship ' ;  but  it 
will  be  seen  by-and-by  how  little  there  was  amongst  them 
of  the  spirit  of  what  is  called  '  the  mutual  admiration 
society.'  They  were  on  the  best  terms  of  good  fellowship, 
and  devotedly  attached  to  Jowett  as  their  teacher  and 
friend,  submitting  to  his  insistent  criticism  only  because 
of  his  evident  good  will  towards  them.  His  devotion  to 
his  pupils  was,  at  this  time,  something  unique  at  Oxford  ; 
and  it  was  rendered  more  effective  by  the  singular 
personal  charm  which  made  him  irresistible  to  younger 
men,  and  the  candour  of  his  judgement,  in  which  he 
always  sought  to  take  in  the  man  as  a  whole,  without 
regarding  minor  points  of  position,  conduct,  or  opinion. 
More  valuable  than  all  was  the  penetrating  sympathy 
with  which  he  discerned  the  individual  wants  of  his 
pupils  and  the  critical  points  in  their  mental  history, 
and  the  eager  promptitude  with  which  he  came  to 
their  aid  unasked  in  difficulties  which  his  sagacity  had 
divined. 

Sellar  was  one  of  the  Glasgow  men,  but,  unlike  most 
of  them,  had  come  up  before  he  was  nineteen,  and  had 
gained  the  Scholarship  in  addition  to  the  Snell.  He  had 
crowned  a  brilliant  Oxford  career  by  taking  an  open 
Fellowship  at  Oriel.  With  great  vigour  both  of  mind 
and  character,  he  had  the  temperament  of  genius  ;  and  in 
the  year  following  his  degree  he  suffered  from  a  nervous 
reaction  after  the  long  intellectual  strain.  Jowett's 


1846-1850]  Pupils  at  Balliol  127 

resolute  and  self-denying  kindness  was  of  lasting  service 
to  him  ;  and  a  life-long  mutual  attachment  was  the  result. 
At  his  home  in  Artornish,  Sellar  used  to  talk  of  'the 
divine  Jowett.' 

Grant  was  the  heir  to  a  baronetcy,  whose  expectations 
had  been  reduced  by  misfortune.  Of  all  the  men  of  his 
time  he  was  most  generally  looked  upon  as  having  made 
Jowett  his  ideal.  His  note-books,  from  which  some 
quotations  will  presently  be  given,  attest  the  eagerness 
with  which  he  drank  in  every  word  of  the  teacher. 

Dugdale  was  a  man  of  fortune,  who  gained  a  First 
Class,  married,  and  died  comparatively  young  in  a  mining 
accident,,  where  he  had  risked  his  life  for  the  sake  of 
others  *. 

Palgrave's  intimate  relation  to  Jowett  and  their  early 
intercourse  will  be  amply  shown  by  the  letters  and 
reminiscences  which  he  has  contributed  to  the  present 
work.  His  love  of  poetry  and  art  was  one  great  bond  of 
intellectual  sympathy  between  them. 

Of  Morier,  Mr.  Palgrave  says — 

'  He  had  come  up  to  Balliol  a  lax  and  imperfectly  educated 
fellow,  but  Jowett,  seeing  his  great  natural  capacity,  took  him 
in  the  Long  Vacation  of  1848  and  practically  "converted  him" 
to  the  doctrine  of  work.  This  was  the  turning-point  in 
Morier's  life,  and  the  warm  friendship  between  them  continued 
until  from  his  own  deathbed  (in  Switzerland)  Morier  wrote  to 
the  Master,  who  himself  was  then  either  dying  or  dead.' 

Of  Jowett's  attachment  to  this  younger  friend,  who 
was  then  unknown  to  me,  I  was  myself  a  witness.  One 
day  in  1852,  when  I  had  taken  him  some  work,  he 

1  He  was  attempting  to  rescue  Chapel.  The  inscription  there  is 
the  miners  who  were  buried  in  Jowett's,  as  appears  from  several 
one  of  his  own  pits.  See  the  drafts  of  it  in  one  of  his  note- 
tablet  to  his  memory  in  Balliol  books. 


128  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

turned  round  from  stirring  the  fire — an  habitual  action 
with  him — with  a  brighter  look  than  I  had  ever  seen  in 
his  face,  and  said,  '  Morier  is  coming l ! ' 

Henry  Smith  had  been  a  pupil  of  Highton's  at  Rugby, 
but  before  obtaining  the  Scholarship  had  been  travelling 
with  his  family  on  account  of  health.  He  gained  the 
Ireland  and  Senior  Mathematical  Scholarships,  but  his 
work  had  been  again  interrupted  by  illness  before  taking 
his  degree.  Jowett  wrote  to  him  urging  an  extended 
absence  in  a  letter  full  of  wise  sympathy,  which  was 
treasured  by  Smith's  mother  until  her  death,  but  has 
been  unfortunately  destroyed.  In  earlier  years  he  was 
equally  distinguished  as  a  Classic  and  a  Mathematician, 
but  latterly  he  became  absorbed  in  the  special  branch 
of  mathematics  on  which  he  has  left  his  mark.  He 
remained  to  the  last  a  steadfast  friend,  and  his  untimely 
death  was  deeply  lamented  by  Jowett,  one  of  whose  latest 
writings  was  a  short  memoir  of  his  former  pupil  and 
junior  colleague 2. 

The  careers  of  these  and  other  friends  who  had  been 
his  pupils  cannot  be  separated  from  the  course  of  Jowett's 
own  existence.  Their  interests  both  in  private  and 
public  are  as  coloured  strands,  which  appear  and  reappear 
in  the  texture  of  his  life.  If  he  gave  them  support  and 
strength,  they  were  his  '  wings/  to  use  the  quaint  phrase  of 
Niebuhr.  He  read  their  books  in  MS. ;  he  followed  every 
step  of  their  success  or  their  discomfiture ;  he  formed 
close  friendships  with  their  wives  and  children.  With 

1  It  was  on  some  such  occasion,  cutioner.     I  remember  the  scene, 

on  the  return  of  an  elder  pupil  There  was  certainly  a  touch  of 

to  Oxford,  that  he  gave  the  enter-  light-heartedness  unlike  his  bear- 

tainment  in  Common  Room   to  ing  in  after  years/ — L.  C. 

which     Mr.     Tollemache    refers  2  Memoir   of  H.  J.   S.  Smith, 

(Benjamin  Jowett,  p.  113),  when  prefixed  to  his  collected  works. 

Jowett  enacted  the  Chinese  exe-  See  vol.  ii. 


1846-1850]  Friendship  and  Study  129 

Sellar  he  renewed  his  knowledge  of  Lucretius  and 
Virgil ;  with  Grant  he  saw  how  Aristotle  had  absorbed 
the  ideas  of  Plato  and  '  stamped  them  with  logic ' ;  with 
Morier  he  took  a  bird's-eye  view  of  continental  politics  ; 
from  F.  T.  Palgrave  he  sought  to  gather  new  impressions 
of  German  and  Italian  art.  Something  of  the  same  kind 
was  true  also  of  younger  contemporaries,  who  were  not  his 
pupils.  While  Lingen, '  sensitive  to  every  breath  of  truth,' 
was  studying  for  the  Bar  and  writing  for  the  Morning 
Chronicle,  he  received  many  a  'prose '  from  Jowett  on  the 
philosophy  of  law  and  on  various  questions  of  the  hour ; 
and  when  in  1847  the  same  friend  obtained  a  secre- 
taryship in  the  Education  Department  under  J.  Kay- 
Shuttleworth,  the  office  of  the  Committee  of  Privy 
Council  became  a  centre  of  sustained  interest  to  Jowett1. 
Lingen  was  followed  thither  by  Temple,  Sandford,  and 
several  other  Balliol  men,  all  friends  of  Jowett's.  while 
M.  Arnold  became  private  secretary  to  Lord  Lansdowne, 
who  was  President  of  the  Council.  And  to  ffolliott 
of  University,  the  heir  to  an  Irish  estate,  whose  acquain- 
tance he  made  through  Morier,  Jowett  expatiates  on 
the  whole  Irish  question  in  its  bearing  on  the  duties 
of  a  landlord,  as  well  as  on  farming,  the  breeding  of 
cattle,  &c.  It  was  thus,  through  sympathetic  (and  yet 
critical)  intercourse  with  other  minds,  that  his  more  dis- 
cursive thoughts  took  shape.  Meanwhile  his  own  studies 
were  pursued,  above  all  in  vacation  time,  with  greater 
assiduity  than  ever.  In  company  with  Temple,  his  junior 
colleague,  he  now  made  a  close  and  serious  study  of 
Hegel.  They  had  translated  a  good  deal  of  the  Logic, 
when  this  task  was  broken  off  by  Temple's  being  sum- 
moned away  to  practical  life.  Jowett  was  for  the  time 

1  He  was  keenly  interested  in      on  Education   in  Wales  in  the 
Lingen's  Report  as  a  Commissioner      autumn  of  1847. 

VOL.   I.  K 


130  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

powerfully  attracted  by  tlie  Hegelian  philosophy.  '  Men 
call  a  page  of  Hegel  difficult,'  he  said ;  '  that  is  because 
they  do  not  sit  down  to  it  as  to  a  problem  in  mathematics.' 
In  a  lecture  once,  on  Jowett's  statement  of  the  doctrine 
that '  Being  both  is  and  is  not,' one  of  the  undergraduates 
present  could  not  repress  a  laugh.  'You  may  laugh, 
Mr.  Dugdale,'  the  teacher  is  reported  to  have  said, '  but 
you  will  find  it  true.'  But  however  strongly  impressed, 
his  mind  was  too  elastic  and  too  onward-moving  to  be 
long  absorbed  in  any  system.  He '  could  not  be  holden  of 
it.'  In  speaking,  as  he  sometimes  did,  of  the  educational 
value  of  metaphysics,  especially  of  German  metaphysics, 
he  would  add,  '  The  philosophical  movement  in  Greece 
was  far  more  important.'  He  would  sometimes  dissuade 
a  pupil  from  the  study  of  Kant,  'because  it  takes  so 
long  to  see  what  these  fellows  would  be  at.'  And  even  in 
these  earlier  years  he  was  fond  of  observing  that  no  old 
man  had  ever  been  a  metaphysician.  '  Hegel  is  a  great 
book,'  he  would  say,  '  if  you  can  only  get  it  out  of  its 
dialectical  form.'  That  is  heresy,  I  imagine,  in  the  ears 
of  a  true  Hegelian. 

In  one  Long  Vacation,  about  1850,  he  made  a  special 
study  of  Auguste  Comte 1.  That  which  always  seemed  to 
him  most  valuable,  both  in  Comte  and  Hegel,  was  the 
historical  method  which  they  pursued  in  different  ways, 
and  the  idea  of  an  orderly  evolution  of  the  human  mind, 
which  had  not  been  clearly  expressed  before  their  time 
— even  in  Lessing's  suggestive  essay  on  the  education 
of  the  human  race.  On  recovering  from  the  impression 
which  Comte  made  on  him,  he  said,  '  The  world  will 
not  be  again  deceived  by  a  metaphysical  system. — Comte 
has  such  great  knowledge  of  the  world  in  one  way, 

1  In  1882  he  re-read  Comte  and  made  many  annotations.  See 
vol.  ii.  p.  187.— E.  A. 


1846-1850]          Lectures  on  Philosophy  131 

so  little  in  another.'  A  later  epigram  of  his  may  be 
quoted  here :  '  Comtism  destroys  the  minds  of  men ; 
Carlyleism  destroys  their  morals.' 

For  his  pupils  at  the  time  now  spoken  of,  especially 
for  Alexander  Grant,  his  philosophical  teaching  had 
a  peculiar  charm.  The  course  of  lectures  on  the  History 
of  Philosophy,  mentioned  in  the  last  chapter,  became 
from  year  to  year  more  comprehensive.  It  had  no 
immediate  relation  to  the  examination  system  as  then 
constituted,  but  helped  to  quicken  men's  intellects,  and 
gave  them  larger  views  about  the  books  they  were 
reading.  The  kind  of  talk  about  the  Ethics  and  Butler 
which  had  '  paid '  hitherto  no  longer  satisfied  either  ex- 
aminers or  examinees. — Single  sayings  of  the  great  Tutor 
passed  from  mouth  to  mouth,  such  as  '  Logic  is  neither 
a  science  nor  an  art,  but  a  dodge ' ;  and  '  The  efflorescence 
of  art  is  the  bloom  upon  decay.'  Another  quotation,  prob- 
ably apocryphal  (though  some  may  think  it  prophetic),  was 
to  the  effect  that '  Education  is  the  grave  of  a  great  mind.' 

He  now  also  gave  a  course  of  lectures  on  the  'new 
science '  of  Political  Economy,  which  he  had  been 
studying  since  1841.  Henry  Smith  was  amongst  his 
auditors  l.  The  lectures  were  renewed  from  time  to  time, 
but  a  few  years  after  this  he  was  wont  to  observe  that 
Political  Economy,  like  Benthamism,  had  done  its  work, 
except  that  there  were  problems  connected  rather  with 
the  distribution  than  the  accumulation  of  wealth  which 
had  to  be  settled  in  the  future 2.  A  sentence  in  one  of  his 
letters  to  Lingen  (September,  1846)  is  significant: — 

'  All  the  world  are  become  Political  Economists,  and  there 

1  See  the  Economic  Journal  for  ness  and  also  the  difficulty  of  the 
1893,  p.  745.  land  question  before  the  subject 

2  It  may  be  mentioned  as  an  had  been  broached  by  any  British 
instance  of  his  foresight,  that  he  statesman. 

had  counted  upon  the  inevitable- 

K  2 


132  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

is  almost  as  much  reason  to  fear  the  application  of  these 
abstract  principles  to  Ireland  as  there  was  formerly  [to  fear] 
their  utter  rejection.' 

But  the  most  substantial  and  permanent  addition  made 
by  Jowett  in  the  early  years  of  his  Tutorship  to  Oxford 
studies,  was  the  introduction  of  Plato's  Republic  as 
a  book  to  be  taken  up  for  the  Schools.  Hitherto,  in 
Greek  Philosophy  at  Oxford,  the  Ethics  and  the  Ehetoric 
of  Aristotle  had  been  all  in  all.  By  lecturing  on  Plato, 
Jowett  infused  new  life  into  the  study  of  Greek  and  of 
Philosophy.  He  had  been  doing  so  at  least  as  early  as 
the  Lent  Term  of  1847,  although  the  practice  of  '  pro- 
fessing' the  Republic  became  general  only  with  the 
inauguration  of  the  new  system  in  1853. 

In  1846-1847  he  was  still  subject  to  occasional  fits  of 
depression.  His  letters  contain  some  curious  reflections 
on  this  subject.  To  a  friend,  who  had  owned  to  the  same 
weakness,  he  wrote  half  humorously  in  May,  1846  : — 

'  This  malady  to  which  we  seem  both  subject,  as  far  as  my 
experience  goes,  begins  with  the  stomach,  extends  itself  to  the 
head,  where  it  dries  up  the  fountains  of  the  intellect,  and 
is  not  wholly  unconnected  with  the  weather.  This,  in  the 
language  of  Hegel,  is  its  reality.  But  its  ideality  embraces 
a  higher  field  :  life,  death,  eternity,  &c.  The  misfortune  is 
that  the  world  see  it  from  the  outside,  whereas  to  yourself  it 
generally  retains  its  sublimer  aspect  from  within. 

'  But  joking  apart  (you  must  attribute  what  I  am  going  to 
say  to  a  headache  or  not),  I  feel  every  day  what  a  serious  thing 
it  is,  and  that  there  is  far  more  truth  in  its  ideal  side  than  in 
the  other.  It  is  a  most  painful  thing  to  fancy  that  you  have 
no  moral  nature,  or  power  of  fixing  your  own  character ;  no 
stamina  that  seems  as  if  it  could  last  you  through  life.  I  think 
one  wants  more  resignation  and  more  determined  living  on 
a  system — to  avoid  excitement  and  all  ecstatic  efforts. 

'.  .  .  It  must  depend  on  oneself  whether  all  this  self- 
experience  and  over-sensibility  ends  in  a  morbid  consciousness 


1846-1850]  Paris  in  1848 

/ 

and  dependence  on  others,  or  in  a  real  self-sufficient  knowledge 
of  human  nature.  Let  us  be  of  good  cheer,  and  trust  that 
when  the  sky  clears  we  may  have  life  and  spirits  to  enjoy  it.' 

In  August,  1847,  he  '  made  acquaintance  for  the  first 
time  '  (as  Boswell  would  say)  with  Selden's  Table-talk, 
a  copy  of  which,  in  the  neat  Pickering  edition,  then  first 
published,  was  given  to  him  by  his  friend  Lingen.  Two 
phrases  of  John  Selden's  became  '  household  words '  with 
him  :  '  The  best  translation  in  the  world '  (of  the  English 
Authorized  Version  of  the  Bible),  and  '  Rhetoric  turned 
into  logic  '  (of  some  theological  notions). 

In  April,  1848,  the  Revolution  and  the  flight  of  Louis 
Philippe,  which  drove  Jowett's  parents  for  the  time  from 
Paris  to  Bonn,  was  the  occasion  of  his  excursion  to  Paris 
in  company  with  Stanley,  Palgrave,  and  Morier,  of  which 
a  vivid  account  is  given  in  the  Life  of  Dean  Stanley l. 
It  there  appears  how  Jowett's  encouragement  had 
rendered  the  scheme  feasible  by  overcoming  his  com- 
panions' irresolution;  and,  according  to  Mr.  F.  T. 
Palgrave's  diary  of  the  expedition, 

'  It  was  Jowett  who,  on  their  arrival,  at  sight  of  the 
Tricolor  and  Tree  of  Liberty,  expressed  the  feelings  of  the 
whole  party,  when  he  said,  "How  absurd  all  fears  seemed 
now."  .  .  .  We  turned  a  corner,  and  there  was  the  long  line 
of  the  Tuileries,  with  the  Tricolor  flying  from  the  central 
dome — the  deepest  sign  of  the  great  change.  .  .  .  The  Arch 
of  Triumph  in  the  Court  of  the  Tuileries  was  guarded  .  .  . 
not  as  of  old  by  lofty  gens  d'armes,  but  by  two  young,  resolute 
fellows  of  the  Garde  Mobile,  in  blouses  and  muskets.  .  .  . 
Everywhere  these  soldiers  of  the  people  are  on  guard  ;  they 
are  at  present  the  police  of  the  town,  and  are  said  to  do  their 
duty  in  good  earnest,  and  to  the  great  preservation  of  public 
order.  .  .  .  Jowett,  however,  allows  that  he  does  not  pass  them 
without  a  shudder.  One  thing,  Morier  said,  that  seemed  to 

1  Vol.  i.  pp.  390  ff. 


134  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

have  struck  the  people  most,  among  the  great  events  of  the 
three  days,  was  the  discovery  of  the  picture  of  Christ  in 
the  chapel  of  the  Tuileries.  Everything  was  being  smashed 
de  fond  en  conible  by  the  people,  when  suddenly  they  reached 
this  picture.  Some  one  cried  out  that  "every  one  should  bare 
his  head."  The  crowd  at  once  did  so.  and  knelt  down,  whilst 
the  picture  was  carried  out  through  the  most  utter  silence — 
"you  might  have  heard  a  fly  buzz" — into  a  neighbouring 
church.  Then  the  suspended  wave  of  destruction  rolled  on. 
.  .  .  Jowett  says  Paris  is  now  attristee — the  people  in  the 
streets  remind  one  of  London.' 

Stanley  brought  from  Matthew  Arnold  an  introduction 
to  the  veteran  historian,  Michelet,  who  told  them  they 
had  come  too  late  or  too  soon  :  '  C'est  1'entr'acte,'  viz. 
between  Revolution  and  Counter-revolution.  Mr.  Pal- 
grave  says  : — 

'  S.,  J.,  and  I  chiefly  sat  and  listened  whilst  Michelet  went 
on  from  one  thing  to  another  for  more  than  an  hour.  He 
seemed  to  anticipate  much  from  the  Chartist  demonstration 
to-day  (April  10).  J. — "It  will  be  of  little  consequence." 
S. — "Ireland  will  be  our  revolution."' 

Besides  Rachel's  singing  of  the  Marseillaise,  they 
heard  the  people's  stormy  eloquence  in  the  clubs,  visited 
St.  Cloud  and  Versailles,  and  fraternized  with  individual 
citizens.  Lacordaire's  sermon  in  Notre  Dame  Jowett 
thought  far  more  eloquent  than  any  English  preaching 
that  he  knew  of.  But  the  most  thrilling  spectacle  in 
which  they  shared  was  the  distribution  of  colours  to  the 
troops  of  the  Republic. 

*  April  20.  ...  The  day  began  in  rain,  but  advanced  to 
gleams  of  sunshine,  which,  passing  up  and  down  the  long 
stream  of  bayonets  that  poured  for  twelve  hours  incessantly 
from  the  distant  Tuileries  or  Place  de  la  Concorde,  lighted  up 
the  waving  lines  like  a  silver  cornfield.  There  was  every 
variety  of  colour  in  the  advancing  thousands,  troops  of  the 


1846-1850]  Oxford  in  1848  135 

line  (saluted  with  cries  of  "Vive  la  Ligne ! ")  mixed  with  the 
dark  uniform  of  the  National  Guard  ;  then  a  splendid  cavalry 
regiment ;  then  the  ragged,  but  bold  and  soldier-like,  Garde 
Mobile,  enfants  de  la  Revolution,  with  green  boughs  and 
flowers  stuck  at  their  musket  ends.  Stanley,  Jowett,  and 
I  joined  one  regiment  and  marched  round  close  before 
them,  with  bare  heads,  to  the  sound  of  drums  and  shouts  of 
"Vive  la  Kepublique  !  " 

'.  .  .  The  members  of  the  Government  frequently  passed 
between  the  platform  and  the  stairs  which  led  downwards  in 
front  of  the  gallery  under  the  arch  ;  .  .  .  and  when  Dupont  de 
1'Eure,  aged,  and  dreamily  looking  out  on  the  scene,  or  Arago, 
or  Cremieux,  or  Ledru-Kollin  passed  out,  they  had  a  free 
way  between  the  spectators.  But  when  Louis  Blanc,  small, 
piercing-looking,  and  thought-wearied,  came  out,  there  was 
a  cry  and  a  rush,  and  all  crowded  about  the  little  ami  des 
ouvriers  with  enthusiasm  ;  far  more  so  when  Lamartine,  tall 
and  noble,  with  thoughtful  and  care-worn  looks,  passed  among 
us,  with  loud  shouts  of  "  Vive  Lamartine !"  There  was  one 
rough  fellow  in  a  blouse  who  offered  him  a  rose-bud,  an 
"offrande  pour  la  patrie,"  to  cheer  him  through  the  long, 
weary  day.' 

I  have  transcribed  this  record  because  of  its  intrinsic 
interest.  On  the  whole  it  seems  improbable  that  the 
events  of  1848,  either  at  home  or  abroad,  had  any 
important  influence  on  Oxford  politics  or  on  Oxford 
studies.  As  Canon  North  Finder  well  observes  : — 

'The  University  at  that  time  had  not  emerged  from  the 
theological  stage,  and  secular  politics  attracted  comparatively 
little  interest.  The  best  of  the  Dons  were  for  the  most  part 
Tractarians,  and  hated  Liberalism  of  every  shade  as  strongly 
as  Newman  did,  while  the  iron  heel  of  the  old  Hebdomadal 
Board  crushed  out  every  germ  of  liberal  aspiration.  .  .  . 
Excitement  in  the  February  of  1848  there  was  in  plenty ;  but 
it  was  not  of  a  very  intelligent  kind,  nor  had  much  seriousness 
about  it.  Christian  Socialism  was  taken  up  ardently  by  the 
few,  who  for  a  testimony  were  content  to  wear  strange 
patterned  and  ill-fitting  trousers,  made  in  the  workshops  of 


136  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

the  C.  S.  tailor.  Foremost  among  these  was  John  Conington, 
then  Fellow  of  University,  and  a  friend  of  Richard  Congreve's. 
A.  H.  Clough  was  just  then  leaving  Oxford,  or  he  would 
doubtless  have  been  a  powerful  factor  in  the  new  movement  \ 

Yet  a  mind  like  Jowett's,  although,  as  appears  in  the 
above  narrative,  he  thought  little  of  Chartism,  could  not 
remain  unaffected  by  a  great  European  change  which  had 
come  immediately  under  his  view. 

With  the  exception  of  this  excursion  to  Paris,  his 
journeys  abroad,  after  1845,  were  less  frequent  and  less 
extensive  than  they  had  been.  His  responsibilities  were 
becoming  more  grave,  and  the  (fuAotfed/uwy  (lover  of  sight- 
seeing) was  yielding  to  the  ^tAoVo^o?  (lover  of  wisdom). 
His  desire  to  visit  Rome,  so  keen  in  1846-1847,  was 
never  gratified,  although  in  one  of  those  years,  with 
ffolliott  or  some  other  friend,  he  went  as  far  as  to  Florence. 
An  occasional  run  to  Switzerland  might  follow  the  annual 
visit  to  his  parents  at  St.  Germains  (1849),  or  Fontaine- 
bleau  (1850) ;  he  is  known  to  have  been  at  Chamounix  in 
1851 ;  he  took  short  tours  with  ffolliott,  and  visited  him 
more  than  once  in  Ireland ;  but  the  bulk  of  the  vacation 
was  divided  between  Oxford  and  some  country  place, 
where  he  pursued  his  own  studies  while  assisting  those  of 
some  undergraduate  friend.  His  thoughts  became  more 
and  more  concentrated  on  Theology.  There  are  still 
extant  amongst  his  papers  some  theological  essays,  most 
of  which  were  probably  composed  when  Stanley  was 
preparing  for  publication  his  Apostolical  Age,  although, 
as  mentioned  in  the  last  chapter,  Jowett  eventually 
declined  to  publish  them  in  that  volume.  An  examina- 
tion of  the  essays  in  question  may  justify  the  conjecture 
that  this  refusal  was  partly  due  to  a  consciousness  that 

1  Clough  gave  up  his  Fellowship      earnest  remonstrances  of  Jowett 
at    Oriel    in    1848,   against    the      and  other  friends. 


1846-1850]  Theological  Essays  137 

his  opinions  on  Theology  were  not  yet  sufficiently  matured. 
The  essay  '  On  the  Person  of  Christ,'  for  example,  is 
an  extremely  subtle  but  hardly  a  satisfactory  piece  of 
work.  It  has  the  charm  of  Jowett's  most  finished  style  ; 
but  if  he  ever  read  it  afterwards,  he  must  have  recognized 
in  it  a  moment  of  transition.  Traditional  orthodoxy  is 
sublimated  and  held  in  solution  by  an  application  of 
Hegelian  method.  The  feeling  with  which,  on  hearing  it 
said  that  Christ  was  merely  human,  he  answered  '  I  shall 
never  say  that,'  is  there  in  full  intensity,  but  is  expressed 
in  forms  which  retain  a  savour  of  scholasticism.  The 
'  golden  haze '  is  still  surrounding  him ;  he  does  not 
yet  'look  out  on  the  open  heaven.'  The  essay  on  the 
motive  of  Judas  Iscariot  in  betraying  our  Lord  turns  on 
a  bold  conception  of  the  complexity  and  range  of  human 
character.  To  the  suggestion  of  Whately  and  others, 
that  Judas  acted  from  the  disappointment  of  a  mistaken 
patriot,  Jowett  replies  that  in  Oriental  natures  there 
appear  to  be  depths  of  treachery  and  perfidy  which  cannot 
be  measured  by  ordinary  standards,  but  spring  suddenly 
into  full  activity  no  one  can  tell  from  whence.  A  curious 
speculation  about  angels  under  the  title  of  'Angelo- 
phania '  is  very  characteristic  of  the  transition  phase  of 
which  I  have  spoken.  A  great  step  forwards  in  the 
formation  of  his  theological  opinions  appears  to  have 
been  made  in  the  Long  Vacations  of  1846  and  1847, 
especially  the  latter.  By  this  time  the  more  compre- 
hensive work  on  the  New  Testament,  to  be  executed  by 
Stanley  and  Jowett  in  common,  had  been  definitely 
planned. 

In  1848  began  that  long  series  of  vacation  readings 
with  Balliol  pupils,  of  which  Mr.  F.  T.  Palgrave  says  : — 

'During  my  Oxford  time,  and  for  years  after,  despite  his 
heavy  work  during  Term-time,  and  the  friends  ready  to  welcome 


138  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP.V 

him  during  vacation,  he  would  constantly  devote  some  weeks 
of  the  Long  to  study  in  some  pleasant  place,  with  any 
undergraduate  he  had  noticed  as  of  promise,  though  disposed 
not  to  make  the  most  of  himself.  These  efforts,  of  course, 
were  not  always  enduringly  successful.  Yet  there  must  be, 
or  have  been,  not  a  few,  perhaps,  who  could  look  back  to 
these  vacations  as  forming,  more  or  less,  a  critical  moment  in 
their  lives,  a  ''  choice  of  Hercules."  This,  indeed,  throughout 
his  own  life  was  (it  has  always  seemed  to  me)  one  of  the 
most  admirable  points  in  his  character.  The  kind  counsel — 
wise,  if  not  always  applicable — to  work  while  yet  it  was  day, 
to  do  all  that  a  man  could — a  doctrine  wherein  he  may 
have  been  encouraged  by  Dr.  Johnson's  example — friends 
old  and  young  never  failed  to  receive  from  him  at  all  times 
and  seasons.  One  might  sometimes  have  been  tempted  to 
pray  that  his  precious  balms  might  not  break  one's  head,  if 
the  clear  candour,  good  sense,  and  deep  affectionate  interest 
of  the  adviser  had  not  been  always  obvious.  Even  Tennyson, 
between  whom  and  the  Master  there  was  equal  love  and 
reverence  for  some  forty  years,  although  he  surely  had  done 
a  complete  man's  work,  Jowett  would  still  urge,  after  the 
Idylls  had  appeared,  to  attempt  some  new  and  greater  song. 
Let  us  now  whisper  "  Bequiescant  in  pace." ' 

Jowett's  stay  at  Oban  with  Morier,  in  1848,  unlike 
some  tutorial  engagements  in  previous  years,  was  a  purely 
voluntary  arrangement  on  both  sides.  They  had  been 
together  at  Paris  in  the  previous  spring,  witnessing  scenes 
of  revolution,  and  their  life-long  friendship  was  already 
begun.  They  were  again  together  in  the  Long  Vacation 
of  1849,  occupying  a  farm-house  at  Grange  in  Borrow- 
dale ;  but  the  season  was  unpropitious,  and  Jowett  began 
to  lose  faith  in  the  refreshing  qualities  of  the  Lake 
country  in  comparison  with  Scotland.  Accordingly,  in 
August,  1850,  he  returned  to  Oban,  this  time  with  a  party 
of  four,  comprising  Arthur  Peel 1,  T.  Fremantle 2,  Henry 

1  Lord  PeeL  2  Lord  Cottesloe. 


1846-1850]  Oban — Bishop  Ewing  139 

H.  Lancaster,  a  Scotch  Exhibitioner,  and  Donald  Owen, 
a  Blundell  Scholar. 

Jowett  delighted  in  Oban,  the  scenery,  the  bathing,  the 
walks  and  climbs,  and  also  in  the  congenial  society  which 
he  found  in  the  neighbourhood.  He  had  been  originally 
drawn  thither  through  his  friendship  with  Alexander 
Ewing.  Bishop  of  Argyll,  whom  he  visited  at  Duntroon 
in  successive  years,  and  with  whose  daughter  Nina 
(afterwards  Mrs.  Crum)  he  formed  one  of  many  child- 
friendships  which  have  left  a  life-long  impress  on  the 
friends  so  made.  Finding  her  somewhat  vague  as  to  the 
use  of  money,  he  insisted  on  sending  her  small  sums  from 
time  to  time,  of  which  he  required  from  her  a  strict 
account.  The  value  which  the  Bishop  set  on  his  con- 
versation is  manifest  from  several  passages  in  the  Memoirs 
of  Alexander  Eicing.  by  A.  J.  Eoss.  Reference  is  there 
made  to  an  occasion  when  Jowett  read  the  prayers, 
and  Stanley  preached,  in  the  upper  room  which  took 
the  place  of  an  episcopal  church  at  Oban ;  and  the 
Rev.  H.  R  Wilson,  afterwards  of  Essays  and  Revietcs 
celebrity,  seems  also  to  have  been  in  the  neighbour- 
hood that  summer.  Jowett  lent  the  Bishop  a  copy  of 
Mr.  Myers'  Catholic  Thoughts,  printed  for  private  circula- 
tion 1,  a  fact  which,  says  the  biographer,  *  had  a  very 
important  bearing  on  the  Bishop's  mental  development.' 
The  memoir  records  long  and  intimate  conversations  with 
Jowett  at  Duntroon  in  June,  1850,  on  many  subjects, 
especially  Christian  evidences  and  the  nature  of  revealed 
religion,  also  on  the  nature  and  development  of  the 
religious  life.  Jowett  was  charmed  with  the  Bishop's 
simple,  genial  ways,  and  wrc~  -:anley.  'He  is  some- 

1  Published  some  years  aft-er-      from  whom  he  had  an  introduc- 
wards,     Jowett's  copy  was  pro-      tion  to  Mr.  Myers  at  Keswick. 
bably  obtained  through  Stanley, 


140  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

times  almost  mad  with  fun.'  This  was  the  year  of  the 
wreck  of  the  Orion,  and  a  sermon  of  Jowett's  on  the 
Resurrection  preached  at  the  time  seems  to  have  pro- 
duced a  remarkable  impression.  The  Bishop  says, '  I  felt 
as  if,  for  me,  the  sea  had  given  up  her  dead.' 

Lord  Peel  has  told  me  (December,  1895)  of  an  incident 
that  happened  during  the  stay  at  Oban.  The  four  pupils 
crossed  one  day  in  an  open  boat  with  one  boatman 
to  the  island  of  Kerrera.  While  they  were  enjoying 
themselves  there,  the  sky  began  to  threaten,  and  the 
cautious  Highlander  warned  them  to  return  while  it 
was  light.  "With  the  recklessness  of  youth,  they  dis- 
regarded his  advice,  and  when  they  started  home- 
wards the  sea  was  rough.  The  boatman  asked  if  any 
of  them  could  row,  and  Peel,  who  had  rowed  at  Oxford, 
took  an  oar.  They  made  some  headway,  but  when  the 
middle  of  the  strait  was  reached,  a  big  wave  laid  the 
boat  on  her  beam-ends.  The  man  called  out  to  them, 
'  Jump  for  your  lives ! '  But  at  that  moment  the  boat 
righted,  and  after  much  labour  they  got  home.  They 
found  Jowett  sitting  alone  at  work.  He  insisted  on 
their  bathing  their  heads  with  spirits  to  counteract  the 
chill ;  and  when  they  had  changed  their  dripping 
garments,  taken  some  food,  and  recounted  their  adven- 
ture, he  said  quietly, '  Don't  you  think  we  had  better 
have  prayers?'  They  all  knelt  down,  and  he  offered 
up  an  extempore  thanksgiving  for  their  deliverance. 

Of  all  the  pupils  of  this  time  there  was  none  with 
whom  his  friendship  afterwards  became  more  intimate, 
or  was  more  constantly  maintained,  than  William  Young 
Sellar,  whose  work  on  the  Latin  Poets  will  long  remain 
a  monument  of  critical  erudition.  He  wrote  of  Sellar 
(after  his  death  in  1890) : — 

'  I  shall  always  think  of  him  as  long  as  I  live.     He  was  so 


1846-1850]  The  Tubingen  School  141 

simple  and  kind,  so  free  from  jealousy  or  ambition  or  self  in 
any  form,  so  "transparent,"  and  so  fond  of  his  friends,  and 
himself  so  unlike  others,  that  we  cannot  help  mourning  when 
we  think  that  we  shall  never  see  him  again.  ...  I  remember 
also  more  than  forty  years  ago  his  coming  up  to  stand  for  the 
Scholarship  and  the  old  Master  remarking  on  his  handsome 
youthful  look.  The  five  or  six  men  who  were  elected  in  that 
set  were  a  remarkable  band  : — Sandars,  Grant,  H.  Smith,  and 
a  year  or  two  previous  Eiddell  and  M.  Arnold.  I  am  pleased 
to  think  that  they  stood  together  and  had  a  strong  affection 
for  one  another  through  life1,  and  that  Balliol  College  was 
accidentally  the  centre  of  this  connexion.' 

Meanwhile  the  notes  on  the  Epistles  for  the  pro- 
jected joint  work  with  Stanley  were  in  progress,  and 
Jowett's  theological  position  was  becoming  more  clearly 
denned.  The  study  of  philosophy  had  loosened  the  bonds 
of  ecclesiastical  tradition.  As  he  says  himself  in  his 
reminiscences  of  Mr.  Ward  2,  he  had  '  put  away  casuistry 
and  was  determined  to  place  religion  on  a  moral  and 
historical  basis.'  '  Really,  I  think,'  he  writes  to  Stanley, 
'one  must  give  up  admiring  or  looking  for  help  from 
others  in  Theology.'  The  writings  of  the  Tubingen 
theologians,  headed  by  F.  C.  Baur,  were  at  this  time 
the  last  word  of  modern  criticism,  and  in  his  own  work, 
of  which  he  felt  the  increasing  magnitude,  Jowett  availed 
himself  largely  of  their  suggestions  :  but  he  could  never 
be  reckoned  as  a  close  follower  of  any  school.  In  all 
that  he  has  written,  there  is  the  note  of  first-hand  inquiry 
and  original  thought.  And  throughout  the  confusion 

1  A  proof  of  this  appears  in  the  critical  moment  of  opening 

Matthew  Arnold's  letter  to  Shairp  life,  were   among  the   same   in- 

of  April  12,  1866 : — '  It  gives  me  fluences  and  (more  or  less)  sought 

great  pleasure  that  you  and  Sellar  the  same  things  as  I  did  myself 

like    Thyrsis  :    .    .    .    the    voices  (Letters  of  M.  A.,  vol.  i.  p.  326). 

I  do  turn  to  are  those  of  our  old  2  W.  G.  Ward  and,  the  Oxford 

set,   now  so  scattered,   who,   at  Movement,  p.  434. 


142  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett  CHAP,  v 

of  the  years  which  followed  on  the  collapse  of  Newman- 
ism  he  held  firmly  to  the  pursuit  of  the  '  practical  ideal,' 
standing  jealously  aloof  both  from  scientific  materialism 
and  from  mere  literary  and  artistic  self- culture. 

In  a  letter  to  Stanley  (1847)  he  remarks,  'It  strikes 
me  that  the  German  theologues  get  more  and  more 
drawn  into  the  whirlpool  of  philosophy,  and  that  all 
their  various  harmonies  are  but  faint  echoes  of  Schelling 
and  HegeL' 

In  F.  C.  Baur,  however,  he  found  a  critical  spirit  that, 
while  following  in  the  footsteps  of  Hegel,  was  able  to  use 
the  weapons  of  philosophy  freely  and  without  pedantry. 
This  flashed  upon  him  with  the  light  of  a  new  discovery 
at  the  end  of  the  Long  Vacation  of  1848  ;  when,  in  the 
same  letter  in  which  he  urges  Stanley  not  to  refuse 
the  Modern  History  Chair  if  offered,  although  he  still 
looked  to  their  joint  work  on  the  New  Testament  as 
the  source  for  them  both  of  *  many  happy  years,'  he 
writes  :  '  Baur  appears  to  me  the  ablest  book  I  have 
ever  read  on  St.  Paul's  Epistles :  a  remarkable  com- 
bination of  Philological  and  Metaphysical  power,  with- 
out the  intrusion  of  Modern  Philosophy.' 

Another  letter  to  Stanley  of  January  10,  1849,  gives 
a  welcome  glimpse  of  his  literary  work  at  the  time : — 

'I  have  to  apologize  for  much  seeming  indolence  about 
the  Commentary.  It  has  been  really  unavoidable.  .  .  .  This 
vacation  I  shall  have  completed  my  translation  of  Hegel's 
Logic,  and,  I  hope,  my  part  of  the  work  on  the  Universities  \ 
Then  I  have  a  short  paper  to  write  on  Kant  and  Hegel,  for 
the  Moral  Philosophy  Society.  Then,  lastly,  I  desire  to  write 
a  short  review  of  your  Sermons z  in  the  Edinburgh,  which  has 

1  See  p.  177.  '  Why  do  you  call  your  Sermons 

1  Stanley  seems  to  have  been  unfortunate  ?  Fortunati  nimium ! 

cast  down  about  the  effect  of  his  ...  A  suspicion  sometimes  comes 

Sermons.    Jowett  wrote  to  him :  over  you  that  your  work  is  and 


1846-1850]  Study  of  the  Gospels — St.  Paul          143 

long  been   in  my  mind :    after   which   I   shall   expatiate   in 
boundless  freedom1.' 

The  letter  to  Dr.  Greenhill  appended  to  the  last  chapter 2 
shows  his  resolution  to  '  consume  his  own  smoke,'  and 
to  keep  his  religious  feelings  to  himself.  The  present 
labour  afforded  an  outlet  in  which  some  part  of  his 
personal  religious  life  became  absorbed.  He  said  long 
afterwards  to  a  friend  who  had  purchased  his  book  on 
the  Epistles,  'I  am  grateful  to  every  one  who  reads 
that  book ;  I  put  so  much  of  myself  into  it.5  It  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  this  work  had  been  preceded 
by  a  close  study  of  the  Gospels,  which  had  been  included 
in  the  original  scheme.  In  the  autumn  of  1846  he 
had  written  to  Stanley: — 

'  I  am  still  at  work  on  the  three  Gospels,  and  am  trying  to 
make  a  careful  comparison  of  them  throughout ;  a  work  of 
much  time  with  little  to  show.  I  think  it  may  be  proved  that 
there  is  no  passage  of  four  or  five  verses  in  length,  where 
there  is  not  either  discrepancy  or  over-close  resemblance  for 
independent  writers.  If  this  can  be  brought  home,  it  blows 
away  attempts  at  chronology,  harmony,  arguments  from  style. 
&c.  I  mean  to  read  over  a  part  of  the  Septuagint,  to  examine 
the  variations  in  the  MSS.  and  see  whether  anything  analogous 
can  be  detected.' 

The  first  trace  of  the  concentration  of  his  labours  on 

will  be  in  vain.     Nothing  but  the  must  surely  be  a  great  evil.' 

thought  of  this  can  make  it  so.  1  In  these  years  he  wrote  much 

No  one  can  tell  what  will  be  the  which  never  saw  the  light,  and 

effect  of  these  Sermons  on   the  planned  more  : — for  example,  an 

minds  of  Heads  of  Houses  and  Edinburgh  Review  article  on  the 

country  parsons,  but  it  cannot  be  Hampden   Controversy   of    1847. 

irretrievable  or  make  you  "forfeit  An  Essay  on  Pascal,  which  I  re- 

beyond  recovery  the   confidence  member  seeing  on  his  table  about 

of  the  Church  of  England."  More-  1850,  may  have  been  published, 

over  the  sort  of  ambiguous  ortho-  but  I  know  not  where, 

doxy  of  Hare,  Maurice,  and  Bunsen  *  p.  109. 


144  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

St.  Paul  occurs  in  a  letter  to  Stanley  in  the  autumn 
of  1847  :  '  I  have  to-day  finished  a  short  essay  on  Romans 
i.  17  about  Natural  Religion.'  He  adds: — 

'  I  hope  you  will  always  rest  assured  that  I  feel  it  to  be  the 
greatest  blessing  and  happiness  to  me  to  bear  a  part  with  you 
in  this  work.  I  feel  that  I  could  not  do  it  alone.  It  has  done 
more  to  cure  me  of  nervous  headaches,  &c.,  than  any  Long 
Vacation  trip  I  ever  took.' 

In  1850  William  Jowett  died.  The  two  brothers, 
William  and  Alfred,  had  just  agreed  to  make  a  hand- 
some remittance  to  their  mother,  and  to  relieve  Benjamin 
from  a  moiety  of  the  burden  which  he  so  long  had  borne. 
The  amount  of  that  burden,  long  studiously  concealed, 
was  made  known  to  Dean  Stanley  when  the  salary  for  the 
Greek  Chair  had  been  at  last  secured  in  1865.  It  was 
then  stated  at  £400  a  year l. 

In  a  letter  to  John  ffolliott,  he  says : — 

'  First,  of  my  dearest  brother,  whom  as  long  as  I  live  I  shall 
remember.  I  have  the  pleasantest  recollection  of  him  possible, 
and  his  cheerful  happy  ways  amid  the  trials  we  had  to  undergo 
in  his  early  life.  He  left  us  eight  years  ago  to  go  as  a  cadet 
to  India,  and  as  far  as  I  can  learn  during  all  this  time  he  acted 
rightly  amid  many  temptations  and  was  universally  beloved. 
Perhaps  I  exaggerate  my  recollection  of  him — it  is  hard  not 
to  do  so  when  a  person  is  taken  from  us — I  was  always  proud 
of  him  and  used  to  think  that  I  never  knew  in  a  young  fellow 
a  greater  union  of  manliness  and  gentleness  and  good  sense. 
I  hoped  when  he  came  back  in  two  years'  time  to  introduce 
him  to  my  friends :  therefore  let  me  talk  of  him  to  you  now, 
as  it  pleases  me  to  do  so,  if  it  does  not  bore  you. ' 

I  have  reserved  for  the  following  chapter  the  movement 
towards  University  Reform  in  which  both  Jowett  and 

1  See  chap.  x.  sub  fin.  Yet  in  posed  to  contribute  ,£50  a  year 
1849  he  was  assisting  a  poor  man  to  the  support  of  a  '  Balliol  Hall.' 
to  emigrate  :  and  in  1852  he  pro-  (See  p.  213.) 


1846-1850]  From  Sir  A.  Grant's  Note-book       145 

Stanley  took  an  active  part  from  the  spring  of  1846. 
This  went  on  simultaneously  with  the  activities  which 
have  now  been  described,  but  an  historical  question  of 
such  importance  requires  consecutive  treatment. 

This  chapter  may  conclude  with  some  extracts  from 
a  note-book  of  Sir  Alexander  Grant's,  in  which,  while  an 
undergraduate,  he  recorded  conversations  with  Jowett : — 

1846.  'We  hear  people  talk  of  a  "free"  translation  and  a 
"  literal "  translation.  This  is  a  false  distinction.  There  can 
properly  be  neither  the  one  nor  the  other.  A  translation  is  only 
good,  and  only  to  be  called  a  translation,  when  it  exactly  conveys 
in  our  language  the  feelings  expressed  in  the  foreign  language. 
To  translate  well  from  Greek  is  as  great  a  work  and  requiring 
as  much  practice  as  to  turn  a  piece  of  English  into  Greek.' 

'  To  give  oneself  up  to  "  Scholarship  "  is  much  the  most  use- 
ful thing  while  an  undergraduate.  To  be  able  to  turn  a  piece 
of  English  into  good  Latin  is  a  better  sign  of  power,  and  gives 
more  promise  than  knowing  the  whole  of  Tennyson  and  Words- 
worth, and  all  such  books.' 

'  None  of  those  people  who  were  about  Coleridge  have  left  us 
a  good  account  of  him.  Gillman  died  before  the  second  volume 
was  published — the  Table-talk  does  not  do  him  justice  at  all,  for 
though  it  tells  us  what  he  said,  yet  it  does  not  give  us  any  idea 
of  that  stream  which  used  to  flow  on  so  uninterruptedly — as  for 
instance  it  is  said  of  him  that,  on  one  occasion,  he  talked  for  a 
whole  night  without  stopping,  in  a  drawing-room,  about  Kant's 
metaphysics,  and  made  the  ladies  listen.  There  are  some 
remarkable  points  in  his  character,  as  for  instance,  his  extreme 
egotism,  and  his  want  of  truthfulness  in  certain  things.  That 
case  of  his  taking  a  whole  paragraph  of  Schelling  as  his  own, 
is  excused  by  some  on  the  ground  that  he  had  it  copied  out 
among  his  own  papers,  and  that,  as  he  himself  tells  us,  there  were 
certain  writers  who  had  contributed  to  form  his  mind  and  were 
virtually  part  of  himself.  But  altogether  we  must  look  at  this 
and  other  acts  as  different  in  him  from  any  one  else.  He  seems 
often  not  to  have  known  what  he  was  doing.  We  must  separate 

VOL.  I.  L 


146  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

men  like  him  from  common  persons,  and  look  at  them  partly 
as  though  they  were  madmen.  But  he  was  a  great  man,  and  we 
must  be  thankful  for  what  he  has  done  for  us.  In  his  theological 
writings  he  was  always  truthful  and  fair  ;  but  his  political  views 
seem  very  warped ;  that  essay  on  international  law  in  the 
Friend  goes  on  a  very  distorted  view  of  morals.  His  character 
of  Pitt  is  full  of  a  personal  bitterness  which  perhaps  later  in 
life  he  might  not  have  felt.  His  gradual  conversion  to  a  right 
belief  is  to  be  attributed  partly  to  his  gaining  sounder  views 
of  philosophy,  partly  perhaps  to  his  bad  health,  which,  coming 
upon  him  as  it  did,  would  dispose  him  to  seriousness.  At 
Berlin  I  talked  to  Schelling  about  Coleridge's  plagiarism  ;  he 
seemed  very  good-natured  about  it,  and  said  that  Coleridge  had 
expressed  many  things  better  than  he  could  himself,  that  in  one 
word  he  had  comprised  a  whole  essay,  saying  that  mythology  was 
not  allegorical  but  tautegorical.' 

'  Sunday,  February  20,  1848. — B.  J.  sent  for  me  to  ask  me 
about  Harrow.  I  could  not  give  him  much  information.  I  was 
leaving  him,  but  I  could  not  open  his  outer  door.  After  trying 
in  vain  we  called  for  Herbert l  and  sent  for  a  blacksmith.  I  sat 
down  for  about  half  an  hour.  I  tried  to  draw  him  into  con- 
versation. He  answered  by  detached  sentences,  and  of  course 
as  I  could  not  enter  into  his  thoughts  sufficiently,  we  could 
not  get  thoroughly  interested,  so  as  to  flow  on  spontaneously.' 

[Jowett's  detached  sentences  are  represented  in  the 
following  notes.] 

[J.]  '  I  like  the  Sundays  at  home  much  better.  The  parish 
service  is  so  much  nicer.  If  we  had  music  in  our  chapels 
I  should  like  it  better  ;  the  singing  and  the  heartiness  of  the 
congregation  at  home  adds  so  much.  Newman's  influence 
in  University  preaching  is  exaggerated.  There  used  to  be 
perhaps  twenty-five  undergraduates  in  the  gallery ;  very  few 
cared  about  him  or  went  to  hear  him.  There  was,  in  all  his 
practical  earnestness,  an  undercurrent  of  his  own  peculiar 
views.  A  remarkable  instance  of  that  was  a  sermon  on 

1  The  College  servant  in  the  Fisher  Building. 


1846-1850]       Conversation  with  A,   Grant  147 

Elijah — in  which  to  the  uninitiated  nothing  would  have 
appeared  remarkable,  but  which  was  in  reality  a  claiming 
for  himself  to  remain  in  the  Church  on  the  same  terms 
as  Elijah  had  remained  under  an  unregenerate  Kingdom  in 
Israel. — High  Church  principles  can  never  be  really  impressed 
upon  the  poor.  Sewell  has  gone  far  to  produce  that  very 
doubt  and  scepticism  and  want  of  an  objective  standard  of 
which  he  himself  complains.  It  must  unsettle  people  to  hear 
men  like  him  talking  so  rashly  and  positively  about  things 
which  they  have  been  accustomed  to  hold  most  sacred. — The 
verbal  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  was  necessary  to  the 
mystical  interpretation  of  them,  such  as  the  Fathers  emploj'ed. 
therefore  those  who  hold  to  the  one  must  hold  to  the 
other.  It  was  never  doubted  before  this  century.  Christian 
Evidences  must  vary  much  at  different  times.  Some  people 
find  the  argument  of  miracles — some  the  indications  of  a  Creator 
— some  the  internal  evidence — some  analogy,  most  convincing. 
Perhaps  a  time  may  come  when  we  shall  see  them  all  combined. 
Paley's  argument  must  not  be  pressed  too  far  :  it  consists  of  two 
propositions,  (i)  that  the  miracles  are  evidenced  by  the  Apostles 
dying  in  vindication  of  them  ;  (2)  the  miracles  of  the  fourth 
century,  &c.,  have  no  such  evidence.  But  the  first  limb  will 
not  stand,  because  Paul  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  "  counted  all 
lost  "  for  the  sake  of  the  miracles  alone.  It  was  rather  Chris- 
tianity as  a  whole,  all  he  had  seen  and  heard  and  felt,  that  im- 
pressed him,  so  that  he  would  even  lay  down  his  life.  No  more 
will  the  second  limb,  because,  whether  true  or  not,  we  believe 
that  Loyola  would  quite  have  died  to  vindicate  what  he  believed 
to  be  miracles.' 


L  2 


148  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 


LETTEES,    1846-1850. 


To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

BEAUMAKIS1,  AugUStl,  1846. 

.  .  .  Have  you  read  Hook's  Pamphlet2,  and  how  do  you  like 
it?  All  Liberals,  of  course,  do  :  at  the  same  time  the  text  of  it 
seems  rather  to  be,  '  Let  us  teach  Church  principles  without  the 
bore  of  having  to  teach  children  to  read.'  It  is  surely  a  great 
'  Schiefheit,'  that  anti-Hegelian  mode  of  distinguishing  religious 
and  moral  and  secular  education.  One  might  much  more  truly 
say,  'You  cannot  teach  reading  without  teaching  morality,'  and 
then,  of  course,  teaching  morality  is  a  sort  of  infidelity  without 
teaching  religion.  Upon  Dr.  Hook's  plan  the  secular  education 
must  be  absolutely  mechanical — the  better  it  is,  the  worse  it  is 
— no  more  morality  must  be  allowed  than  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  teach  people  to  read.  And  then  the  tickets  that 
the  children  are  to  bring  to  prove  attendance  at  the  Church  or 
Chapel  School  before  they  can  be  allowed  to  go  to  the  secular 
— and  in  a  free  country  !  And  the  squirearchy  guardians  of 
education  !  .  .  .  Fancy  the  Squire,  especially  if  he  is  the  Parson 
of  the  Parish,  considering  impartially  the  claims  of  his  '  Dissent- 
ing brethren.' 

I  think  there  are  only  two  ways  in  respect  of  Education  which 
are  worth  considering — a  national  scheme  of  general  religion, 
i.  e.  in  what  men  of  the  world  and  thoughtful  men  acknowledge 
the  essentials,  leaving  the  Sunday  Schools  untouched,  whether 
Church  or  Dissent  ;  in  short,  a  '  gigantic  scheme  of  unbelief '  as 

1  Beaumaris  in  Anglesey  was  in  1846  a  Letter  to  the  Bishop 

near  to  Penrhyn,  where  some  of  of  St.  David's,  How  to  render 

Stanley's  relatives  lived.  more  efficient  the  Education  of 

a  The  Kev.  Walter  Farquhar  the  People.'  See  Dean  Stanley  s 

Hook,  Vicar  of  Leeds,  afterwards  Letters,  p.  106  (letter  of  August  4, 

Dean  of  Chichester,  published  1846). 


Letters,  1846-1850  149 

Evangelicals  and  Puseyites  would  call  it — and  the  giving  money 
to  each  sect  separately  to  apply  as  they  please.  Government 
Inspectors  '  in  plain  clothes '  might  be  stationed  in  the  distance, 
who  should  gradually  approach  nearer  and  nearer  until  the  clergy 
at  length  discovered  that  they  had  taken  the  whole  into  their 
custody.  Any  scheme  of  education  .  .  .  must  be  done  by  some 
great  doer  of  the  age,  who  is  able  to  act  out  the  discovery  of 
a  truth  through  all  its  stages,  and  who  does  not  get  too  soo» 
convinced  of  the  whole  truth. 

The  only  thing  to  be  thought  of  in  favour  of  Dr.  Hook's  plan 
as  it  seems  to  me,  is  whether  secular  education  will  not  of  itself 
break  up  sectarianism.  But  one  does  not  like  to  lose  so  great  an 
opportunity  for  moral  and  religious  good.  Look  forward  thirty 
years,  and  all  Dr.  Hook  can  hope  for  is  twice  as  many  Puseyites  as 
at  present,  twice  as  many  Evangelicals,  and  the  great  solid  mass  of 
the  world  with  its  many  virtues  external  to  the  Church — utterly 
unimpressed — with  twice  as  much  education  as  at  present, 
with  twice  as  many  newspaper  and  railroad  influences.  .  .  . 
How  Arnold  would  have  blown  his  trumpet ! 

To  R.  R.  W.  LTNGEN. 

BEAUMARIS,  August  7,  1846. 

...  I  have  been  working  lately  at  the  three  first  Gospels,  to 
try  if  possible  to  find  out  the  manner  in  which  they  came  into 
their  present  form.  Nothing  can  exceed  the  absurdities  which 
the  orthodox  English  divines  have  talked  about  this  subject. 
They  very  nearly  all  believe  that  by  attentive  and  accurate 
observation  of  facts,  the  three  Evangelists,  without  any  concert, 
were  led  to  describe  them  in  the  same  words.  If  you  have  any 
curiosity  about  this,  which  is  a  most  curious  question  for  lawyers', 
you  will  find  a  resume  of  the  opinions  in  Home's  Introduction 
(Vol.  ii.  p.  2,  at  the  end),  whose  only  zeal  is,  of  course,  how  to  be 
most  orthodox.  I  would  sooner  believe  that  every  Cross  in 
Christendom  is  of  the  wood  of  the  true  Cross,  than  that  such 
a  miracle  as  their  theory  requires  had  taken  place.  So  much 
seems  clear,  but  the  problem  is  so  hopelessly  complex,  where 

1  Lingen  was  at  this  time  studying  for  the  Bar. 


150  Life  of  Benjamin  Joweit          [CHAP,  v 

you  have  the  power  of  assuming  ad  libitum  Aramaic  documents 
and  oral  Gospels,  that  I  think  the  only  thing  to  be  done  is  to 
prove  it  insoluble  except  in  a  general  way.  .  .  . 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

BEAUMARIS,  August  17,  1846. 

...  A  thought  has  struck  me  often  during  the  last  few  weeks, 
which  is,  I  think,  comforting  about  one's  vocation  in  life.  Con- 
sidering how  little  sympathy  I  have  with  the  clergy,  for  I  never 
hear  a  sermon  scarcely  which  does  not  seem  equally  divided 
between  truth  and  falsehood,  it  seems  like  a  kind  of  treachery 
to  be  one  of  them.  But  I  really  believe  that  treachery  to  the 
clergy  is  loyalty  to  the  Church,  and  that  if  religion  is  to  be  saved 
at  all  it  must  be  through  the  laity  and  statesmen,  &c.,  not  through 
the  clergy.  Is  there  any  reason  to  think  that  if  the  clergy  with 
their  present  intolerance,  ignorance,  narrowness  and  love  of 
pious  frauds,  could  succeed  to  the  utmost  of  their  wishes,  they 
would  produce  any  other  revival  than  such  a  one  as  seems  to 
be  going  on  in  France  at  present,  four  out  of  five  women 
made  semi-Catholics,  four  out  of  five  men  made  semi-Infidels  ? 

What  I  mean  is,  that  I  do  not  see  that  one  need  look  upon 
one's  occupation  as  gone  because  the  usual  routine  is  very  much 
shut  up.  It  is  in  reality  a  higher  work  that  opens,  trying  to 
make  the  laity  act  up  to  and  feel  their  own  religious  principles. 
Surely  it  is  a  surprising  thing  what  a  much  higher  tone  they 
have  of  late  years  taken,  e.g.  in  the  House  of  Commons,  &c.,  while, 
at  the  same  time,  the  old  talk  of  the  clergy  about  sacrilege,  &c., 
Irish  Bishoprics,  Penal  Acts,  divine  right  of  education,  has  been 
gradually  exploding.  While  Arnold  was  chiefly  known  among 
the  clergy,  he  was  reviled  and  despised  :  I  doubt  whether,  even 
now,  there  are  a  hundred  clergymen  over  forty  who  feel  any 
sympathy  with  him  ;  but  the  laity  '  rose  at  him. ' 

His  theory  of  Church  and  State  seems  to  me  chiefly  a  mistake, 
because  it  is  for  making  a  work  outward  and  external  which 
should  be  inward  and  spiritual,  and  also  because  it  implies  that 
Church  and  State  is  a  device  of  statesmen  or  of  Churchmen,  and 
not  a  natural  dualism,  which  except  among  angels  who  are  above 
this  world  or  infidels  who  know  of  no  other,  must  ever  be.  It 


Letters,  1846-1850  151 

involves  two  impossibilities,  to  destroy  one  Church  and  build  up 
another.  I  think  too  that  in  his  way  of  speaking  it  was  wrong 
to  imply  that  we,  and  especially  the  clergy,  were  so  very  bad  and 
corrupt.  Altogether,  whatever  truth  there  was  in  it  seems  to 
have  been  inconsiderately  expressed.  If  there  should  ever  be 
a  second  Eeformation  we  shall  not  say  '  Lo  here  or  Lo  there.' 

...  I  find  rest  here  a  good  thing,  and  my  pupil  works  hard  and 
is  very  considerate.  About  September  20  I  am  free.  It  has 
struck  me  you  might  like  to  go  over  to  Ireland  for  a  fortnight 
about  that  time,  see  Dublin,  '  Derrynane  Abbey,'  &c.  Would 
not  this  be  more  relaxation  than  hovering  about  the  coast  of 
Norfolk  ?  Therefore  come  to  Ireland  ;  shake  hands  with  the 
Liberator l ;  see  Eoman  Catholicism  in  a  new  form,  get  a 
nostrum  to  cure  Irish  evils,  and  qualify  yourself  to  talk  with 
country  gentlemen  all  your  life  on  the  subject. 

To  E.  E.  "W.  LIXGEX. 

BEAUMARIS,  August  18,  1846. 

.  .  .  The  Aristocracy  is  too  long  a  subject  to  discuss  in  a  letter. 
You  seem  to  me  to  imagine  this  oligarchy  to  be  a  much  more 
narrow  thing  than  it  really  is.  It  cannot  do  without  wealth — 
it  is  liable  to  become  a  jest : — it  cannot  do  without  education, 
for  [then]  it  is  robbed  of  more  than  half  its  associations.  And 
in  this  way  the  Plutocracy  and  the  aristocracy  of  talent,  the 
latter  partly  through  the  professions,  are  ever  blending  with 
it,  and  as  it  seems  to  me  becoming  greatly  improved  by  it.  It 
may  sound  natural  to  say  '  I  value  a  man  at  what  he  really 
is';  but  can  you  separate  a  man  from  circumstances  in  this 
way?  ...  If  you  say  'No,  but  I  will  resist  artificial  dis- 
tinctions'— this  seems  to  me  the  very  point — does  not  all 
experience  show  that  this  is  a  natural  distinction  ?  If  it  were 
true  that  there  is  no  sense  in  which  the  aristocracy  are  better 
than  shopkeepers,  is  it  conceivable  that  in  these  days  they 
could  keep  up  a  merely  feudal  distinction  ?  No  distinction 
lingers  so  long  in  a  revolution  or  so  soon  returns.  Is  it  not 
true  that  the  gentlemanly  virtues  (I  do  not  mean  real  worth) 
exist  tenfold  among  the  aristocracy  for  one  'gentleman  by 

1  O'Connell. 


152  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

nature'  you  find  among  the  middling  classes?  A  gentleman's 
motto  ought  to  be  regardlessness  of  money  except  in  great 
things  and  as  a  matter  of  duty — a  tradesman's  motto  ought 
to  be,  '  Take  care  of  the  pence  and  the  pounds,  &c.'  And  when 
one  remembers  what  a  hold  this  principle  must  get,  I  do  not 
think  we  can  afford  to  give  up  aristocracy  as  an  element  of 
National  Education.  .  .  . 

To  E.  E.  W.  LINGEN. 

BEATJMARIS,  August  24,  1846. 

.  .  .  I  confess  it  is  the  priestcraft  of  S.  Oxon.  I  am  most 
afraid  of.  Coming  the  Bishop  of  Oxford  is,  I  am  afraid,  likely  to  be 
a  much  more  successful  game  than  coming  the  Bishop  of  Exeter 
over  the  world.  Think  of  a  man  who  always  looks  good,  out 
of  whose  mouth  Christian  charity  flows  like  rivers  of  oil,  equally 
respected  by  old  women  and  prime  ministers,  who  never  for 
a  moment  loses  sight  of  spiritual  in  his  search  after  temporal 
things.  . .  . 

To  A,  P.  STANLEY. 

August,  1846. 

.  .  .  You  have  everything  to  encourage  you  both  in  the 
past  and  the  future,  if  you  would  but  bring  yourself  to  believe 
that  you  have  the  power  of  self-improvement.  I  sometimes 
think  that  you  indulge  a  kind  of  fatalism  about  character  ; 
there  are  no  faults  intellectual  or  otherwise  which  may  not 
be  got  rid  of,  if  the  right  methods  are  used — sometimes  fighting 
them,  sometimes  flying  from  them.  Let  us  think  of  journey- 
ing on  until  seventy  in  these  kind  of  pursuits ;  the  thought, 
perhaps  you  will  say,  is  oppressive.  But  let  us  try  and 
'victual  ourselves  for  such  a  voyage  as  this.' 

There  is  something  impertinent  in  this  sort  of  '  subjective ' 
letter,  even  between  two  intimate  friends  ;  therefore  excuse  it. 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  I  know  a  thousand  times  more  folly 
in  myself  than  these  defects  in  you — I  mean,  indecision  and 
premature  theorizing.  I  have  been  anxious  about  it  for  a  long 
time,  and  as  your  letter  gives  me  an  occasion,  say  what  I  feel 
once  for  all. 


Letters,  1846-1850  153 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

August,  1846. 

.  .  .  About  publishing  them l  in  your  book  I  scarcely  know 
what  answer  to  give.  It  would  be  pleasant  to  have  them  put 
with  your  Sermons  and  would,  perhaps,  get  them  readers,  and 
might  give  me  some  note,  good  or  evil.  I  have  often  dreamed 
of  this,  and  feel  most  sincerely  that  it  is  truly  kind  of  you 
to  give  me  a  chance  I  might  never  have  again  of  putting 
myself  '  in  oculis  hominum.'  But,  for  reasons  that  do  not  in  the 
least  degree  apply  to  you,  I  must,  however  reluctantly,  say  No. 

.  .  .  I  do  not  ever  wish  or  desire  or  think  it  possible  that  the 
clergy  should  be  done  away  ;  their  institution  is  '  a  supply 
to  the  imperfection  of  our  nature,'  and  though  essentially 
imperfect  may  ever  approximate  to  something  better.  The 
Woods  and  Hansards  must  give  up  sectarianism,  keep  their 
common  sense,  and  get  more  if  they  can.  A  sort  of  instinct, 
it  may  be  hoped,  will  make  them  retire  from  debateable 
ground.  I  think  that  the  position  of  the  clergy  is  only 
melancholy  where  it  is  neither  speculative  nor  practical.  If 
Biblical  criticism  spreads  they  will  be  driven,  as  many  of 
them  have  been  by  Puseyism,  into  the  practical,  and  cease 
to  give  such  an  account  of  the  visitation  of  Ahab's  sins  on 
his  posterity  as  I  heard  last  Sunday  from  Mr.  Blomfield 2, 
a  true  younger  brother  of  the  Bishop  ;  or  such  an  account 
of  the  internal  evidences  of  religion  as  he  favoured  us  with 
to-day.  Really,  I  never  hear  a  sermon  of  which  it  is  possible 
to  conceive  that  the  writer  has  a  serious  belief  about  things — 
if  you  could  but  cross-examine  him  he  would  perjure  himself 
every  other  sentence.  Morality  is,  for  the  sort  of  men  you 
speak  of,  a  great  light  ;  they  must  bury  themselves  in  their 
parishes  and  learn  humility  and  drink  no  more  the  dregs 
of  Orthodoxy.  If  they  could  get  rid  of  Theology  altogether 
and  learn  the  New  Testament,  especially  the  Gospels,  by 
heart,  it  would  be  well.  From  the  side  of  Christian  charity, 
too,  they  are  quite  accessible.  Politics,  Maynooth  Grants, 
Education  questions  must  with  or  without  them  be  settled 

1  His  Theological  Essays.  Stevenage,  Hants,  Prebendary  of 

2  Rev.  G.  B.  Blomfield,  Rector  of      Chester,  and  Rural  Dean. 


154  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

in  the  next  ten  years,  and  unless  they  are  prepared  for  an 
irreconcilable  war  with  the  course  of  events  they  will  sit 
down  and  be  'rationally  pious.'  There  seems  good  hope, 
I  think,  that  what  has  already  taken  place  in  politics  among 
statesmen  will  take  place  among  Churchmen — plain  matter 
of  fact  people  in  a  matter  of  fact  country  will  honestly  look 
about  them  and  see  what  wants  doing. 

About  Arnold's  theory  I  do  not  quite  agree.  Its  fault  is  not 
simply,  I  think,  that  it  is  too  concrete,  but  that  it  does  not 
acknowledge  the  true  concreteness  of  the  Church  as  it  is. 
When  it  gets  out  of  the  Ideal,  it  is  not  merely  impracticable, 
but  a  falsehood.  Men  must  have  religion,  but  they  are  not 
all  equally  religious ;  their  inward  requires  an  outward  ;  but 
external  institutions  are  not  things  of  degrees,  they  cannot 
represent  shades  of  feeling  and  opinion.  And  therefore  when 
you  say,  '  If  they  must  have  a  Church  externally,  this  is  the 
true  external,'  I  cannot  consent,  because  it  is  leading  men 
to  expect  an  outward  form  of  the  Church  which  never  can 
be  while  human  nature  remains,  and  drawing  them  from  the 
true  form  which  we  have  at  present  and  [which]  may  ever 
approximate  towards  the  spiritual,  although  the  dualism  will 
still  remain  : — 

Was  ist  wirklich,  das  ist  vernunftig : 
Was  ist  vernunftig,  das  ist  wirklich. 

Granting  the  truth  of  Christianity,  the  opposition  having 
lasted  1800  years  is  a  tolerable  proof  that  it  is  '  wirklich. ' 

No,  it  is  not  the  system,  but  the  ^flos1  of  the  English  Church, 
which  is  distasteful  to  me.  The  change  of  this  ^0os  ought  to 
preserve,  not  destroy  the  system.  If  we  could  once  get  out 
of  the  pious  fraud  line,  Englishmen  would  not  soon  relapse 
into  it,  whereas  Germans  are,  I  think,  ever  liable  to  returns 
of  the  malady. 

Your  two  last  letters  gave  me  great  delight.  I  feel  every 
day  of  my  life  that  if  one  is  ever  to  be  of  any  good,  idiosyn- 
crasies, eccentricities,  irritabilities,  excitements,  self-conscious- 
nesses, follies  of  all  sorts  must  be  got  rid  of.  No  more  sub- 
jectivity, but  I  hope  you  are  going  on  your  way  rejoicing. 

1  The  moral  tone. 


Letters,  1846-1850  155 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

Saturday,  August,  1846. 

.  .  .  Another  Tablet*  came  to-day — one  still  missing. 
Number  one  I  like  better  than  number  two.  The  beginning 
conciliates  me  ;  but  it  really  makes  me  sick  at  heart  to  think 
of  the  past,  to  find  mutatis  mutandis  the  same  thing  going 
on  still  on  a  humbler  scale,  a  self-deception  so  uncommonly 
like  truth,  and  so  all-pervading.  Is  it  possible  that  a  man 
of  his  great  activity  of  mind,  with  all  his  recollections  of 
Arnoldism,  Whatelyism,  as  well  as  of  his  deep  faith  in  the 
weaknesses  of  Puseyism,  can  remain  as  he  is  with  nothing 
short  of  'vera  sunt  vera,'  &c. 2?  It  is  not  Catholicism  I  care 
about,  but  he  is  such  a  monstrous  unnatural  Catholic,  not  like 
Pascal  giving  up  human  learning,  or  like  the  Hermesians 
throwing  up  a  sort  of  Pantheistic  outwork,  but  distorting 
every  kind  of  human  knowledge  which  he  does  not  ignore. 
Many  a  sceptic  there  must  have  been  in  the  Eoman  Catholic 
Church  who  has  died  humbly  receiving  the  Sacraments,  and 
believing  in  eternal  possibilities,  but  this  is  very  different  from 
this  concentrated  scepticism  with  its  ponderous  front  of  dog- 
matism, which  not  only  does  not  believe,  but  is  incapable  of 
believing  because  it  believes  everything.  With  Pascal  or 
Newman  I  cannot  help  feeling  the  deepest  sympathy ;  they 
do  not  say  it,  of  course,  but  you  feel  they  are  clinging  to  it 
as  a  last  resource,  if  the  mercy  of  God  may  accept  them  now 
that  they  have  given  up  the  strife.  With  the  lusty  orthodoxy 
of  Ward  I  have  no  sympathy ;  he  is  too  flush  and  full-blown, 
and  too  light  in  condemning  others,  considering  all  the  past. 

1  W.  G.  Ward,  having  become  a  vera"  '  (True  things  are  true  and 
Roman  Catholic,  was  now  writing  false    things   are    false  ;   but   if 
a  series  of  articles  in  the  Tablet.  the  Church  should  say  that  false 

2  See  W.  G.  Ward,  fyc.,  p.  115,  things  were  true  and  true  things 
note  i :    '  One  of  his  (John  Carr's)  were  false,  then  true  things  are 
inventions   which   I    happen    to  false  and  false  things  are  true), 
remember,  is  worth  preserving:          'This oracular sayinghe brought 
"Vera   sunt   vera  ac   falsa  sunt  out  with  great  seriousness  as  a 
falsa.    At  si  Ecclesia  dixerit  vera  quotation  from  Bellarmine.' 
esse  falsa  ac  falsa  esse  vera,  turn          For    John    Carr    see     above, 
vera    sunt    falsa  ac   falsa    sunt  p.  59. 


156  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

To  E.  E.  W.  LTNGEN. 

BEAUMAEIS,  September  5,  1846. 

...  It  is  impossible  that  we  can  have  the  faith  of  our 
fathers,  because  the  light  will  be  always  breaking  in  upon 
us.  ...  Religion,  it  might  be  said,  has  become  more  a  matter 
of  reason  .  .  .  more  extended,  less  concentrated,  not  one 
belief  but  an  equilibrium  of  all  the  elements  of  belief. 
...  A  man  may  live  in  a  happy  valley  with  respect  to 
religion  ;  the  misfortune  of  which  is,  that  he  excommunicates 
his  neighbours ;  but  if  he  looks  out  into  the  world  East 
and  West,  in  hac  immensitate  longitudinum  latitudinum,  &c.,  of 
speculative  truth,  it  is  impossible  that  his  views  of  Christianity 
should  not  be  modified  ;  and  one  man  will  think  that  he  is 
defiling  the  simplicity  of  Christ,  and  puffed  up  with  knowledge 
falsely  so  called,  while  another  might  fancy  that  there  may 
be  here  something  of  the  wisdom  which  St.  Paul  or  St.  John, 
living  now,  would  have  spoken  among  those  that  are  periect. 
Think  of  how  many  unpleasant  truths  there  are  that  remain 
untold  about  Christianity  and  Christendom,  and  yet  we  all 
give  an  implied  assent  to  interpreting  the  Gospel  by  the  course 
of  the  world.  .  .  . 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

BEAUMAEIS,  September  6,  1846. 

.  .  .  What  a  grand  fellow  the  new  Pope l  seems  to  be  !  What 
say  you  to  this  as  a  politico-historical  prophecy  for  1856? 
I  mean,  worthy  to  be  the  picture  at  the  beginning  of  Moore's 
Almanack  and  nothing  more  : — Italy  an  ecclesiastical  Republic, 
Pansclavismus  with  one  arm  reaching  into  Poland  become  an 
independent  province,  and  the  other  in  Bohemia ;  two  great 
German  kingdoms,  Protestant  and  Catholic,  the  first  advancing 
on  Denmark  with  a  navy  on  the  Baltic,  the  second  looking 
upon  Switzerland  as  though  it  loved  it  ;  Spain  a  sort  of 
dependent  on  France,  which  should  have  moved  onward  to 
the  Rhine  ;  America  with  towns  and  ports  all  along  the 
Pacific,  and  England  steaming  it  over  the  whole  world,  a 
great  Steam  Navigation  Company  with  stations  at  Oceania, 

1  Pio  Nono. 


Letters,  1846-1850  157 

New  Zealand,  Australia,  India,  the  Cape,  &c.  There  should 
be  railroads,  too,  intersecting  India,  and  'British  Capital' 
should  have  cut  through  the  Isthmus  of  Darien  ;  mountains 
being  blown  up  by  some  unknown  Warner1  invention,  and 
locks  made  sufficient  to  support  the  weight  of  an  ocean.  Here 
I  am  getting  out  of  my  latitude  and  shall  therefore  stop, 
but  I  think  you  must  allow  that  the  plan  for  Europe  is  about 
as  good  as  the  treaty  of  Vienna,  if  it  were  only  possible.  My 
balance  of  power  should  be  Protestant  against  Catholic  Germany, 
France  and  England  against  Pansclavismus  and  despotism  ; 
Germany  a  debateable  ground,  and  the  Pope  without  reference 
to  nice  distinctions  of  doctrine  looking  simply  to  the  question 
of  how  he  might  best  keep  his  head  above  water. — I  find 
reading  prosper  here  and  therefore  purpose  staying  about 
three  weeks  longer,  when  I  wend  my  way  probably  to  the 
Lakes,  Durham,  York,  Lincoln,  Peterborough,  Cambridge  ; — a 
Cathedral  tour,  you  see.  .  .  . 

To  E.  E.  W.  LINGEN. 

BEAUMAEIS,  September,  1846. 

.  .  .  Just  now  persons  who  are  at  all  thoughtful  about 
things  do  seem  strangely  solitary,  '  wandering  about  in  sheep- 
skins and  goatskins ' :  at  first  sight  there  might  seem  no  limit 
to  scepticism  in  speculation,  and  that  practical  changes  were 
getting  altogether  unmanageable.  I  do  not  think  this  is  so 
really.  Is  not  the  sin  of  infidelity  in  a  great  measure  despair 
about  the  course  of  the  world  ? 

.  .  .  The  Vestiges  of  Creation  I  have  read.  The  way  in 
which  it  was  attacked  by  Sedgwick  disgusted  me.  I  dare  say 
it  is  all  wrong,  but  cannot  see  that  there  is  any  religious 
interest  against  it  any  more  than  against  science  in  general. 
All  science  tends  to  demonstration,  to  lock  up  the  world  under 
a  series  of  causes  and  effects.  It  is  no  use  to  make  religion 
fill  up  the  interstices  of  science  which  are  merely  accidental  ; 
I  mean,  to  seek  the  freedom  of  the  will,  for  example,  in  the 
denial  of  materialism.  As  to  revelation,  you  are  retreating 

1  Warner's    Explosive    Force :      July  20,    1844.     See    Times    for 
first  widely  known   through   an      July  22,  1844. 
experiment  in  Shoreham  Roads, 


158  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

inch  by  inch  from  before  astronomy,  geology,  linguistik, 
history,  and  criticism  in  general.  As  to  natural  religion, 
the  German  metaphysicians  would  all  find  a  place  for  material- 
ism as  a  complete  though  one-sided  account  of  the  world. 
Sedgwick  and  Co.  do  unmixed  evil  by  making  that  the  battle- 
ground, on  which  they  must  be  beaten. 

To  E.  E.  W.  LINGEN. 

March  10,  1847. 

.  .  .  What  is  to  be  done  about  Ireland  ?  a  question  every 
day  becoming  more  aweful. 

Dufferin  of  Christ  Church,  who  seems  a  most  excellent  tuft, 
went  over  to  Skibbereen  about  a  fortnight  since  and  brings 
back,  as  you  may  expect,  the  most  horrible  accounts.  He  says 
that  the  dead  from  starvation  and  fever  are  about  one-third,  that 
a  regular  cart  goes  about  like  the  descriptions  in  the  plague,  that 
the  men  who  are  employed  on  the  public  works  can  scarcely  stand 
from  their  meagre  food  and  diet,  &c.  Lord  Lansdowne  told 
M.  Arnold  the  other  day  that  he  expected  1,000,000  of  persons 
would  die  before  it  was  over.  Notwithstanding  the  £200,030 
subscription  it  is  difficult  to  persuade  oneself  that  enough  is 
doing  in  England.  I  do  not  quite  understand  why  1,000,000  of 
people  should  die  with  a  free  trade  in  corn  and  an  income 
in  this  country  of  .£300,000,000  a  year :  it  could  not  cost  more 
than  about  £6  a  year  to  keep  them  alive  per  head.  Is  it 
absolutely  impossible  for  persons  who  have  the  greatest  know- 
ledge of  Ireland,  to  hit  upon  some  method  between  public 
works  and  mere  charity  which  might  apply  £6,000,000  usefully  ? 
Now,  it  does  seem  to  me,  has  come  the  time  for  England 
to  repay  all  her  debts  to  Ireland  and  lay  the  foundation  of  a 
new  connexion  between  the  countries.  There  is  of  course  the 
double  difficulty  how  to  get  it  and  how  to  use  it — English 
credit  and  Irish  corruption  ;  but  I  can  hardly  think  insuper- 
able. Such  a  mistake  as  the  Government  have  made  about  the 
public  works  is,  surely,  without  excuse,  although  civil  things 
are  said  about  it  in  the  House  of  Commons.  It  must  have 
been  easy  to  foresee,  that  the  small  farmers  without  money 
or  means  of  subsistence  would  be  driven  on  the  public  works 
instead  of  cultivating  their  own  land. 


Letters,  1846-1850  159 

It  is  against  all  the  rules  of  Political  Economy  to  be  in 
favour  of  a  poor  law,  but  in  the  present  case,  does  it  not  seem 
as  if  the  barbarous  nature  of  the  people  and  the  interests  of  the 
landholders  are  leagued  against  it  equally  ?  Suppose  the  rental 
of  Ireland  £36,000,000,  and  one-third  of  it  to  have  been 
collected,  why  not  reduce  the  landholders  a  little  and  make 
them  understand  that  the  crisis  of  their  country  requires 
a  little  more  than  '  giving  up  pastry '  ?  Unless  Ireland  makes 
much  greater  sacrifices  it  is  impossible  to  persuade  England  to 
make  the  necessaiy  sacrifices. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY  (ON  HIS  RETURN  FEOM  SPAIN). 

[OXFORD,  April  or  May,  1847.] 

*fi  fj.aKo.pic  Ko.1  TpLo-fj.aKa.pLe  Kal  /Aa^apiwrare  l,  ut  sis  vitalis  metuo  2  : 
but  think  you  may  possibly  recover  from  this  historical  surfeit. 

.  .  .  This  is  only  to  greet  you  ;  it  is  a  waste  of  time  writing 
as  you  return  to  these  bustling  scenes  so  soon.  '  Had  it  not 
been  for  the  battle  of  Tours,'  Oxford  might  have  been  Granada, 
St.  Mary's  a  mosque,  you  exegetical  professor  of  the  Koran, 
giving  equal  offence  both  to  the  Sonnites  and  Shuites. 

I  am  delighted  to  hear  of  the  prosperity  of  your  tour, 
although  I  was  not  there  to  plan  it.  I  hope  I  shall  live  to  see 
the  East  some  day  and  (not  in  Moses's  company)  'make 
a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  City.' 

There  is  nothing  to  tell  here  ;  stagnant  omnia.  With  your 
Sermons  and  my  Essays  I  have  done  nothing;  the  last,  because 
I  found  it  so  difficult  to  rewrite  them. 

I  have  been  reading  the  Counter-Eeformation  in  Ranke. 
How  strange  the  causes  which  religious  changes  depend  upon  ! 
At  one  time  scarce  any  Catholics  in  Austria,  at  another  all 
France  on  the  point  of  joining  the  Huguenots.  At  Gratz 
in  1596  all  Protestants,  1598  all  the  Lutheran  Ministers  ex- 
pelled ;  compare  Oxford  1844  to  1847.  '  If  y°u  mark  the 
history  of  the  Popes  well,  look  you,  the  history  of  the  Heads  of 
Houses  comes  indifferent  well  after  it3.' 

1  '  Happy,   thrice   happy,    nay          2  '  Too  happy  to  live  long.'— 
most    happy  ! '      Cf.    Ar.    Eccl.      Horace,  Sat.  II.  i.  60. 
1 129.  s  Cf.  Shakesp.,  Henry  V,  iv.  7. 35. 


160  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 


To  E.  E.  W.  LTNGEN. 

DULOE,  KEAB  LlSKEAKD, 

August  21,  [1847]. 

I  have  got  so  transcendentalized  lately  with  reading  Schelling's 
Systems  of  Nature  that  it  is  quite  a  blessing  to  get  back  again 
to  the  outward  world.  I  confess  I  begin  to  look  upon  meta- 
physics rather  as  a  necessity  than  as  a  great  good — the  air 
is  too  rarefied  to  breathe  long,  and  you  are  like  a  balloon, 
a  good  deal  at  the  mercy  of  the  currents.  Yet  the  spiritual 
world  is  so  much  like  the  ideal  one  that  it  is  impossible  to  stir 
a  step  in  theology  without  them.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Do  you  think  that  the  existing  state  of  opinions  in 
morals,  theology,  &c.,  will  'break  up  before  we  are  yet  old 
men '  ?  Looking  at  the  progress  of  criticism  and  of  physical 
science,  at  the  plasters  we  have  been  applying  to  theology, 
I  fancy  that  a  second  Keformation  is  not  impossible  even  in 
our  time.  I  hope  that  whatever  comes  of  it  will  not  be 
egotheism — which  seems  a  compound  of  indomitable  egotism 
with  the  artistic  love  of  truth — but  some  real  and  practical 
good.  I  notice  in  several  persons  whose  opinions  on  many 
things  are  much  to  be  respected  a  great  tendency  to  this  artist- 
like  perception  of  right  and  wrong — Truth  under  the  image 
of  a  beautiful  statue,  a  naked  statue  too,  stripped  bare  of 
the  garment  in  which  education  has  clothed  her.  I  greatly 
lament  I  cannot  myself  get  more  practical  ;  one  has  such 
a  weak  hold  on  the  world  or  on  other  people — you  acquire 
a  sort  of  feeble  intelligence  of  everything  and  lose  force  of 
mind  and  character.  .  .  . 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

[August,  1847.] 

...  I  think  we  ought  to  do  more  towards  it  [the  book  on  the 
New  Testament]  than  we  have  done  in  the  last  two  years,  if  we 
are  to  live  to  see  it  finished.  I  wish  we  could  read  through  the 
New  Testament  together,  to  begin  with  :  otherwise  there  will 
be  no  sort  of  unity  in  what  we  write.  I  know  very  well  how 
ignorant  one  of  the  commentators  is,  who  has  been  spinning 


Letters,  1846-1850  161 

cobwebs  for  the  last  four  years  instead  of  arranging  facts  and 
gaining  real  knowledge. 

My  own  wish  would  be,  if  it  is  to  your  taste,  to  work  at  it 
together,  something  in  the  same  fashion  that  Liddell  and  Scott 
did  at  their  Lexicon.  We  might  read  separate  series  of 
authors,  and  if  our  work  could  be  made  to  square  with  the 
Lectures  it  would  be  a  great  gain.  Next  Term  I  could  read 
the  Epistles  with  you  three  or  four  evenings  in  the  week,  if  you 
are  not  alarmed  by  such  a  proposal. 

What  think  you  of  making  a  paraphrase  of  the  Epistles,  like 
Locke  ?  I  wish  there  were  any  one  to  whom  we  could  look, 
like  Arnold,  for  advice  and  assistance,  but  it  is  no  use  to  lean 
upon  broken  reeds. 

.  .  .  Do  you  know  Selden's  Table-Talk'?  If  you  have  not  got 
it,  I  will  order  it  and  make  you  a  present  of  it.  '  All  the  best 
commentators  on  hard  texts  of  Scripture  have  been  laymen.' 
'  Now  oaths  are  so  frequent  they  should  be  taken  like  pills.  If 
you  chew  them  they  are  bitter  :  if  you  think  what  you  swallow, 
it  will  hardly  go  down.'  Bishop  Wilkins,  editor  of  Selden's 
works,  cannot  believe  them  *  to  be  genuine. 

Where  are  you  going  after  September  22?  I  must  go  to 
Paris  first  of  all  to  see  my  father  and  mother  ;  but  for  the  last 
fortnight  or  three  weeks  I  would  gladly  meet  you  in  Normandy 
or  at  Paris,  if  you  liked  a  short  French  tour. 

To  B.  C.  BRODIE. 

i  Great  George  Street,  [1848]. 

I  hope  it  will  not  seem  to  be  from  any  unkindness  that 
I  have  not  seen  so  much  of  you  as  formerly.  It  grieves  me  to 
think  how  very  much  we  disagree  in  opinion,  but  I  trust  we 
have  still  the  '  common  ground  of  conscientiousness '  of  which 
you  once  spoke  to  me.  I  do  not  like  to  say  anything  more 
about  these  subjects,  because  I  shall  only  seem  to  condemn  you, 
and  show  myself  inconsistent.  The  strongest  feeling  that  I  have 
is  that  no  merely  artistic  religion  or  morality  has  any  real 
truth  or  usefulness,  or  can  have  any  hold  on  the  minds  of  men 

1  Viz.  the  sayings  recorded  in  Selden's  Table-Talk. 
VOL.   I.  M 


1 62  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

in  general.  Do  let  me  urge  you  to  be  as  serious  as  you  possibly 
can  in  considering  these  things,  which,  if  not  aweful  realities, 
are  still  very  aweful  when  we  think  of  our  absolute  ignorance 
about  them. 


To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

OB  AN,  [September,}  1848. 

My  own  feeling  would  be  that  you  should  not  refuse  a  position 
[the  Chair  of  Modern  History]  for  which,  without  flattery,  you 
are  fitter  than  any  one  else  who  could  be  found.  I  do  not  like 
to  urge  your  standing  for  it,  considering  how  we  are  circum- 
stanced with  the  Commentary,  out  of  which  I  look  for  us  both 
for  many  happy  years'  work  r  OTrep  OVK  IvSe^erai.  irdpepyov  ctvat ]. 
But,  if  it  is  offered,  I  would  not  refuse.  .  .  .  Any  scheme  of 
University  improvement  would  be  greatly  aided  by  your  having 
the  Chair. 

Many  thanks  for  your  letter,  which  amused  me  greatly. 
Le  gros  Citoyen 2  and  ffolliott  (who  is  here  and  speaks  of  you 
in  the  kindest  manner)  desire  their  best  regards.  I  am  just 
returned  from  Staffa  and  lona.  .  .  .  Baur  appears  to  me  the 
ablest  book  I  have  ever  read  on  St.  Paul's  Epistles :  a  re- 
markable combination  of  the  philological  and  metaphysical 
power,  without  the  intrusion  of  modern  philosophy  as  in 
Usteri. 

To  F.  T.  PALGRAVE. 

DUNTROON,  LOCH  GlLPHEAD, 

April  14,  1849. 

...  I  have  been  reading  with  great  pleasure  Schelling's 
Verlialtniss  der  bildenden  Kunst  zwr  Natur.  I  wish  you 
would  get  it  and  read  it,  as  the  German  is  not  difficult. 
It  shows  a  mind  '  sensitive  to  every  breath '  of  beauty,  and 
combining  with  this  the  highest  metaphysical  power.  I  should 
think  Schelling  was  the  only  one  of  the  German  Philosophers 
who  had  any  true  feeling  for  art. 

1  '  Which  cannot  be  made  a  secondary  task.'  2  Morier. 


Letters,  1846-1850  163 


To  F.  T.  PALGEAVE. 

BORROWDALE,  August  21.  1849. 

I  quite  agree  with  you  in  thinking  Malvern  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  places  I  ever  saw.  The  style  of  country  I  like  much 
better  than  this,  which  is  not  open  enough,  or  grand  enough,  or 
fresh  enough  to  suit  me,  though  there  are  magnificent  views  in  a 
few  places.  Scotland  is  a  far  finer  country  than  this  to  my  mind, 
with  brighter  colours,  and  richer  skies,  and  a  fine  line  of  coast. 

I  have  been  simmering  over  my  notes  to  the  Eomans  ever 
since  I  have  been  here :  the  mere  notes  I  think  I  could  com- 
plete in  a  few  months.  But  there  are  so  many  other  subjects, 
such  as  the  Text  of  the  New  Testament,  the  '  Lehr-begriff '  of 
St.  Paul,  the  language  of  the  New  Testament  in  relation  to 
Philo  and  the  Alexandrians,  and  the  '  Analoga '  in  the  present 
day  or  in  history  to  the  state  of  things  for  which  St.  Paul 
wrote,  &c.  &c.,  that  I  hardly  venture  to  think  of  the  end  of 
my  work. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

BORROWDALE,  NEAR  KESWICK, 
[August,  1849]. 

I  should  be  glad  to  know  whereabouts  you  are,  and 
whether  there  is  any  chance  of  your  coming  into  this  part  of 
the  world.  I  hope  the  Eastern  tour  is  finally  settled. 

I  have  been  reading  Baur,  and  confess  myself  a  convert  to 
his  view  of  the  '  Christus-partei '  as  a  matter  of  probability, 
which  is  all  that  can  be  attained  to  on  such  a  subject.  Was 
hdben  Sie  dagcgen  einzuwenden?  It  strikes  me  a  good  deal, 
however,  how  uncertain  and  unpromising  any  Niebuhrian 
attempts  are  on  ecclesiastical  history.  The  Fathers  and  the 
heretics  between  them  have  so  sophisticated  matters,  and 
the  circumstances  are  so  new,  there  being  no  analogy  to  guide 
us,  that  the  end  of  all  inquiries  is  almost  an  even  balance 
of  probabilities  about  the  first  century.  If  the  Fathers  were 
right,  the  heretics  were  wrong  :  if  the  heretics  were  right,  the 
Fathers  were  wrong.  It  seems  to  me  absolutely  necessary  to 
place  oneself  at  some  higher  or  lower  point  of  criticism  or 

M  2 


164  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

scepticism,  if  we  are  to  do  anything  more  than  add  another 
guess  to  the  many  already  made  by  Genus  Theologicum.  I  was 
very  sorry  to  hear  of  De  Wette's  death  :  an  honest  man  and 
a  great  critic. 

Last  night  I  read  a  good  part  of  the  Apostolical  Fathers.  It 
is  difficult  to  imagine  how  anything  so  poor  and  so  miserably 
rhetorical  could  have  been  written  so  near  the  Apostolical  Age 
and  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament. 

Miiller J  and  Morier  are  here  with  me — the  first  busy  with 
his  book  on  'the  Arian  nations  before  their  separation,  as 
traceable  in  language.'  The  book  is  in  many  parts  interesting, 
but  requires  a  much  more  artistic  working  up.  .  .  . 

I  am  sorry  to  see  the  democratic  cause  falling  so  low  :  there 
is  still  a  hope  'of  the  Prince  of  Wales  being  King  of  England.' 
I  would  sooner  live  in  the  backwoods  than  in  Cossack  Europe. 
Whether  the  democratic  party  or  the  despotic  aristocratic  party 
is  uppermost  is  almost  equally  bad.  Chartism  and  Protection- 
ism, Legitimist,  Socialist,  Church  and  State,  Manchester  and 
Almack's,  wealth  and  birth,  should  balance  each  other,  and  all 
be  regulated  by  education,  common  sense,  and  Sir  Kobert  Peel. 

One  is  especially  sorry  to  see  Germany  in  its  present  state, 
seeming  to  fulfil  all  the  worst  prognostications  of  Tories  and 
bigots,  and  destroying  all  faith  in  ideals.  .  .  . 

To  R  E.  W.  LINGEN. 

KESWICK,  [September  8,  1849]. 

What  an  extravagant  value  for  human  life  seems  to  be 
springing  up,  seen  in  Peace  Congresses  and  Rush2  petitions, 
such  as  would  have  been  despised  in  an  ancient  state.  I  don't 
like  to  see  the  military  spirit  of  a  people  destroyed  in  this  way. 
And  as  to  Bush  petitions  : — to  give  the  poor  wretch  time  to 
repent,  who  has  lived  all  his  life  in  the  moral  sink  of  Field 

1  Mr.  Max  Miiller  had  recently  made  a  Fellow  of  Balliol,  but  the 

come  to  Oxford,  introduced  by  the  negotiation  ended  in  his  becom- 

Chevalier  Bunsen,  and  was  pre-  ing  a  Student  of  Christ  Church 

paring  the  Essay  on  Comparative  under  Gaisford's  headship. 

Mythology    which     appeared     in  a  i.  e.  for  the  reprieve  of  the 

1856.   Jowett  had  tried  to  get  him  murderer  of  that  name. 


Letters,  1846-1850  165 

Lane  and  St.  Giles's,  with  uncleansed  sewers,  for  whom  Society 
has  done  nothing — to  come  in  at  last  with  this  sentimentalism 
about  repentance,  &c.,  seems  disgusting.  People  will  find  out  at 
last  that  there  is  something  more  valuable  in  the  world  than 
human  life,  as  they  are  beginning  to  find  out  that  there  is 
something  more  valuable  than  the  abstract  idea  of  freedom 
on  the  Slavery  question.  It  strikes  me  that  one  might  make 
three  divisions  of  practical  questions  which  have  a  bearing  on 
the  morals  of  the  community,  (i)  How  to  make  the  worst 
better  ; — Prison  Discipline,  Juvenile  Offenders,  &c.  (2)  How  to 
raise  all  up  to  a  certain  fair  level  of  morals  and  education — the 
Education  question,  the  business  of  Kay-Shuttleworth  and  his 
heirs  or  assignees.  (3)  How  to  make  the  decent  intelligent 
member  of  Society  into  a  real  high-minded  Christian,  rising 
above  the  ordinary  tone  and  rules  of  Society — the  business  of 
the  clergy. 

To  E.  R.  W.  LINGEN. 

BALLIOL,  October  16,  1849. 

.  .  .  This  is  '  the  busiest  time  of  all  the  busy  year, '  and 
therefore  I  hope  you  will  excuse  my  sending  you  only  a  few 
lines.  I  heard  from  Palgrave  this  morning  that  Temple  had 
just  left  for  his  holiday.  The  John  Bull,  I  see,  has  been  attacking 
'  the  Infidel  College1.' 

It  would  be  a  strange  thing  to  collect  together  all  the  evils 
that  have  sprung  from  religion,  not  merely  from  downright 
persecution,  but  from  the  prejudices  and  narrownesses  which 
in  the  mass  of  men  seem  inseparable  from  it.  How  seldom 
you  meet  with  a  religious  man  who  is  quite  sensible  also — as 
politicians,  most  are  almost  insane.  When  anything  touches  the 
very  name  of  religion,  eu$vs  /lateral "  and  becomes  so  stupefied 
and  isolated  in  his  prejudices,  that  it  is  impossible  for  him  to 
understand  the  real  state  of  the  case.  One  cannot  give  up  the 
hope  of  better  things,  but  there  is  small  sign  of  them  at  present. 
At  Oxford  persons  are  considerably  excited  just  now  by  a  sermon 

of  L 's,  which,  if  it  was  truly  reported  to  me,  seems  to  have 

been  very  bold  indeed,  implying  that  he  desired  to  get  rid  of 

1  University  College,  London.  2  '  He  is  ready  to  fight.' 


166  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

the  definitions  of  the  Trinity,  Sacraments,  &c.  It  was  a  dis- 
covery that  in  the  progress  of  time  had  been  made,  that  these 
things  were  undefinable. 

I  should  be  glad  to  hear  from  you,  though,  as  you  knew  long 
ago,  I  am  a  very  bad  correspondent.  You  must  take  care  of 
yourself  and  let  your  mind  be  at  rest  or  your  body  will  never 
nourish.  I  think  one  is  often  oppressed  with  a  sort  of  night- 
mare of  work  and  anxiety  and  trouble  which  disappears  the 
instant  we  attack  it  vigorously.  There  is  a  great  truth  in  that 
verse,  '  Casting  all  your  care  upon  Him,  for  He  careth  for  you.' 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

[October,  1849.] 

.  .  .  The  difficulty  about  St.  John's  Gospel  is,  first,  the 
general  difficulty  about  so  short  a  work,  which  cannot  be 
verified  from  our  other  knowledge  of  the  writer :  second,  the 
silence  of  about  a  century,  which  must  be  taken  in  connexion 
with  the  other  fact  of  its  being  the  one  book  which  all  Christians 
would  naturally  have  sought  for,  appealed  to,  and  thought 
about :  third,  from  the  silence  of  Justin,  a  writer  of  the  same 
tendencies,  who  knows  the  ideas  of  the  Gospel,  but  not  the 
Gospel  itself:  fourth,  what  Baur  urges,  the  question  which 
cannot  be  excluded,  of  its  relation  to  the  other  Gospels  and  to 
authentic  history,  as  viewed  from  the  internal  evidence : 
lastly,  the  cumulative  force  of  all  these  points  together,  if  they 
can  be  all  proved. 

On  the  other  side,  the  spirituality  of  the  Gospel  is  a  testi- 
mony to  its  being  no  fiction — nay,  to  its  inspiration,  in  almost 
any  sense  of  the  term.  And  its  general  reception  and  recog- 
nition by  heretics  and  orthodox  alike  about  the  year  160,  say,  is 
an  immense  difficulty  on  the  Tubingen  hypothesis.  .  .  . 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

October  23,  1849. 

I  could  not  help  feeling  pained  at  the  latter  part  of  your  very 
kind  letter J.  I  know  well  how  much  better  and  wiser  I  ought 
to  be  at  all  to  be  worthy  of  that  high  opinion  you  express.  It 

1  Cf.  Letters  of  Dean  Stanley,  pp.  138, 139. 


Letters,  1846-1850  167 

will  always  be  a  motive  with  me  to  try  and  make  myself  very 
different  from  what  I  am.  I  think  it  is  true  (and  I  am  glad 
you  mentioned  it)  that  we  have  not  had  the  same  mutual 
interest  in  talking  over  subjects  of  theology  that  we  had 
formerly.  They  have  lost  their  novelty,  I  suppose  :  we  know 
better  where  we  are,  having  rolled  to  the  bottom  together,  and 
being  now  only  able  to  make  a  few  uphill  steps.  I  acknow- 
ledge fully  my  own  want  of  freshness  :  my  mind  seems  at  times 
quite  dried  up,  partly,  I  think,  from  being  strained  out  of  pro- 
portion to  the  physical  powers.  And  at  times  I  have  felt  an 
unsatisfied  desire  after  a  better  and  higher  sort  of  life,  which 
makes  me  impatient  of  the  details  of  theology.  It  is  from  this 
source  only  I  can  ever  look  for  any  'times  of  refreshment.' 
Had  I  always  done  rightly,  my  life  would  doubtless  have  been 
happier  and  my  mind  clearer. 

I  think  sometimes  we  have  been  &  little  too  intellectual  and 
over-curious  in  our  conversations  about  theology.  We  have 
not  found  rest  and  peace  in  them  so  much  as  we  might  have 
done.  As  to  the  other  point  you  mention,  I  am  quite  sure  you 
cannot  be  too  independent.  Your  supposed  want  of  judgement 
is  a  mere  delusion,  and  if  it  were  not,  and  I  were  really  able  to 
guide  you,  it  is  the  greatest  absurdity  for  one  man  to  submit 
his  will  to  another,  merely  because  he  has  the  power  of  sym- 
pathizing and  has  greater  energy  at  a  particular  moment. 
I  think  I  see  more  clearly  than  formerly  that  you  and  I  and  all 
men  must  take  our  own  line  and  act  according  to  our  character, 
with  many  errors  and  imperfections  and  half-views,  yet  upon 
the  whole  we  trust  for  good.  We  must  act  boldly,  and  feel 
the  world  around  us  as  a  swimmer  feels  the  resisting  stream. 
There  is  no  use  in  desultory  excitement,  of  which  perhaps  we 
have  had  too  much :  steady  perseverance  and  judgement  are 
the  requisite.  And  Oxford  is  as  happy  and  promising  a  field 
as  any,  such  as  we  are,  could  desire. 

I  earnestly  hope  that  the  friendship  which  commenced 
between  us  many  years  ago  may  be  a  blessing  to  last  us  through 
life.  I  feel  that  if  it  is  to  be  so,  we  must  both  go  onward  : 
otherwise  the  wear  and  tear  of  life  and  the  '  having  travelled 
over  each  other's  minds,'  and  a  thousand  accidents,  will  be 
sufficient  to  break  it  off.  I  have  often  felt  the  inability  to 


i68  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

converse  with  you,  but  never  for  an  instant  the  least  alienation. 
There  is  no  one  who  would  not  think  me  happy  in  having 
such  a  friend.  We  will  have  no  more  of  this  semi-egotistical 
talk :  only  I  want  you  to  know  that  I  will  do  all  I  can  to 
remedy  the  evil,  which  is  chiefly  my  fault. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

BATH,  December,  1849. 

...  I  am  staying  here  for  a  day  or  two  (until  Thursday)  with 
Morier.  Mr.  Morier  has  much  to  tell  of  battles  of  Leipsic,  of 
the  Congress  of  Vienna,  &c.  .  .  . 

Get  Newman's  new  volume  of  Sermons J — most  remarkable. 
I  don't  know  whether  it  is  old  association,  or  not,  but  his 
writings  certainly  have  an  extraordinary  power  over  one. 
I  think  that  Eomanism  was  never  so  glorified  before.  No  one 
ever  mixed  up  such  subtle  untruths  with  such  glorious  truths. 
It  is  like  the  old  Sermons,  only  aggravated  in  beauties  as  well 
as  defects. 

To  JOHN  FFOLLIOTT. 

BALLIOL,  January  20,  [1850  ?] 

I  have  just  been  reading  Cicero  to  revive  if  possible  a 
lost  faculty  of  writing  Latin  prose,  and  may  as  well  add  an 
extract : — 

'  Omnium  rerum  ex  quibus  aliquid  exquiritur  nihil  est 
Agricultura  melius,  nihil  uberius,  nihil  homine  libero  dignius.' 
You  have  the  Text.  Let  me  add  another  passage  which  I  am 
not  quite  sure  exists  in  all  the  MSS. :  '  Nihil  procurator!  aut 
villico  mandandum  nisi  tute  ipse  intersis.' 

Let  me  say  first  a  word  about  your  taking  Orders.  I  confess 
I  think  it  is  a  desertion  of  your  post.  It  would  compel  you 
to  leave  your  home  and  family,  nor  is  there  any  point  of  view 
in  which  you  could  do  as  much  good  as  a  clergyman,  as  you 
might  being  a  layman.  It  might  be  that  from  taking  to  it 
with  thorough  good  will,  you  would  devote  yourself  to  it  more 
successfully  from  feeling  that  you  were  suited  to  it ;  but,  on  the 

1  Discourses  addressed  to  Mixed  Congregations,  1849. 


Letters,  1846-1850  169 

other  hand,  I  doubt  whether  you  are  suited  to  many  of  its 
duties,  as  for  example  that  of  writing  a  weekly  sermon  ;  and 
also,  I  fear,  you  would  always  reproach  yourself  for  having  left 
Ireland  and  neglected  the  peasantiy  on  your  father's  estates. 
I  ventured  to  mention  it  to  Temple,  and  no  one  else.  You 
will  see  from  the  enclosed  what  he  thinks.  But  indeed, 
1  understood  when  you  last  talked  about  it  that  you  yourself 
had  given  it  up  and  thought  it  inexpedient. 

'  Well,  and  what  has  your  confounded  iroXv-n-pajfjioo-vvrj l  got 
to  suggest  next  ? '  you  exclaim.  I  want  you  to  be  an  agri- 
culturalist, a  cattle-breeder  (don't  laugh),  a  model  Irish  squire, 
beloved  by  the  finest  '  pisantry  '  in  the  world.  I  do  not  think 
you  are  right  in  looking  forward  to  a  time  when  your  estates 
will  be  worth  nothing.  Is  it  not  possible  to  contrive  that  the 
time  shall  never  arrive  ?  Is  not  the  one  duty  tolerably  plain, 
to  save  yourself  from  ruin  and  the  people  from  starving? 
I  do  not  in  the  least  doubt  that  you  see  this,  yet  forgive 
my  impertinence  for  repeating  it — things  sometimes  strike 
us  more  when  said  by  another  person.  To  effect  this  is  the 
business  of  a  life,  spent  in  enduring  all  the  disagreeables  of 
Ireland,  the  dulness  of  society,  the  bore  of  the  landlords, 
the  perversity  of  the  tenants,  the  idiot  farming  of  the 
peasantry,  who  may  possibly,  but  not  probably,  turn  out 
ungrateful  after  all. 

...  If  you  wish  to  become  an  agriculturalist,  I  fear  you 
would  find  it  a  mistake  to  begin  with  chemistry.  Any  real 
knowledge  of  such  subjects  requires  so  much  bookwork  and 
also  so  much  experiment,  that  you  would  find  it,  I  fear, 
very  difficult  and  irksome  ;  also,  the  practical  result  too  dis- 
tant to  be  of  any  use.  I  do  not  mean  to  doubt  its  use  as 
a  means  of  general  improvement  and  a  subject  of  great 
interest,  but  merely  that  I  do  not  think  any  one  is  very 
likely  to  make  two  blades  of  wheat  grow  where  one  grew 
before  by  the  study  of  it.  The  first  point  in  a  farm  must 
always  be  economy  and  good  management. 

.  .  .  Well,  I  hope  you  will  forgive  me  for  saying  all  this. 
I  will  not  trouble  you  again.  Indeed  I  know,  especially  in 

1  Meddlesomeness. 


i yo  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  v 

Ireland,  that  every  one  must  judge  for  himself,  and  it  would 
not  at  all  surprise  me  if  you  felt  it  right  to  disregard 
everything  I  have  ventured  to  say. 

To  JOHN  FFOLLIOTT. 

BALLIOL,  February  12,  [1850  ?] 

Many  thanks  for  your  kind  letter.  I  am  sure  I  never  meant 
to  say  that  you  were  incapable  of  writing  a  sermon  (I  don't 
doubt  that  you  could  write  a  very  good  one),  but  only  that  you 
were  not  one  of  those  '  regular  posters '  who  could  accomplish 
two  sermons  per  week  with  comfort  to  yourself.  I  could  give, 
I  think,  exquisite  reasons  for  this,  but  dare  say  you  would  not 
wish  to  be  further  bored  by  the  subject. 

No  letters  from  'Joe1,'  but  only  tidings  through  Miiller, 
now  at  Paris  and  soon  to  be  at  Oxford,  that  the  said  Joseph 
is  diverting  himself  at  Berlin,  where  he  thinks  of  remaining 
for  some  months.  Warburton  is  here  ;  also  Stanley.  Goldwin 
Smith  is  to  have  a  Fellowship,  under  whose  auspices  '  Floreat 
magna  Aula  Universitatis. ' 

I  hope  you  will  write  and  tell  me  whether  you  find  '  farming 
concerns '  thriving  and  interesting.  Free  trade  I  fear  will 
press  more  heavily  on  Ireland,  as  there  is  no  great  manu- 
facturing interest  which  is  proportionably  benefited.  I  should 
not  think  it  was  likely  any  degree  of  protection  would  be 
restored  either  for  cattle  or  grain,  for,  as  Lord  John  Russell 
said,  the  moment  it  was  clearly  seen  that  a  part  of  the  increased 
value  of  cattle  or  corn  went  to  raise  rents,  it  was  impossible 
to  maintain  this  state  of  things  even  if  good  in  the  abstract. 
It  is  said,  or  more  strictly  it  was  told  me  by  a  man  who  said  he 
heard  it  from  Lord  Charles  Russell,  that  the  Ministry  had  con- 
sidered the  proposal  of  an  eight  shillings  fixed  duty,  that  Lord 
John  Eussell  was  in  favour  of  it,  Lord  Grey  against  it ;  but 
that  the  idea  was  finally  given  up  on  finding  that  the  leaders 
of  the  Free  Trade  party  would  not  hear  of  it,  that  none  would 
consent  to  more  than  a  five  shillings  duty,  and  Lord  John 
Russell  thought  that  the  Ministry  would  lose  more  by  this 
than  the  agricultural  interest  could  gain. 

1  R.  B.  D.  Morier. 


Letters,  1846-1850  171 

I  will  inquire  about  the  carols  to-morrow,  as  I  ought  to 
have  done  long  since,  and  send  them  to  you  in  remembrance 
of  the  Christmas  Eve  which  we  spent  together. 

Respecting  farming,  Shairp  tells  me  that  an  excellent 
Scotch  bailiff  may  be  procured  for  £100  a  year.  I  fear  you 
will  find  the  responsibility  irksome,  if  you  have  the  manage- 
ment in  your  own  hands.  There  is  a  good  article  respecting 
'Draining'  in  the  last  Quarterly — deep  draining  for  all  soils 
whatever  appears  to  be  the  writer's  theory. 

.  .  .  Fare  you  well,  and  do  not  forget  the  line — 

Who  feeds  fat  oxen  must  himself  be  fat. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

OBAN,  August  12,  [1850]. 

...  I  hope  you  are  placable  about  letters,  and  do  not  think 
I  have  less  regard  for  you  than  four  years  ago,  when  we  had 
a  furious  correspondence. 

.  .  .  Get  to  Italy  if  you  can,  and  look  upon  the  blue  waters 
of  an  Italian  lake — it  is  a  sight  that  refreshes  one  for  the  rest 
of  the  year.  I  think  I  shall  hardly  rest  another  year  without 
getting  a  sight  of  one  myself. 

...  I  have  four  pupils  here,  Fremantle,  Owen,  Lancaster,  and 
Peel.  What  I  have  seen  of  the  latter  I  decidedly  like — he  is 
very  manly  and  intelligent.  I  hope  something  may  be  made 
of  him. 

My  sermons  make  some  progress ',  and  I  have  written  a 
weekly  one  for  the  congregation  here.  A  zealous  member  of 
the  congregation  asked  how  many  Presbyterians  we  had  con- 
verted. I  was  happy  to  assure  her  that  there  was  no  danger 
of  our  converting  any. 

There  is  a  poor  young  lady  here  (an  Episcopalian)  who  is 
dying.  I  have  been  to  see  her  several  times,  as  there  was 
no  one  else  here.  It  is  a  strange  sight  to  see  a  person  so 
entirely  resigned  to  death,  saying  with  the  greatest  placidness, 
'  I  wonder  whether  I  shall  be  alive  the  day  after  to-morrow.' 

1  He  was  now  Select  Preacher. 


CHAPTEK   VI 

UNIVERSITY    AND    CIVIL   SERVICE    REFORM.       1846-1854 l 

W.  D.  CHBISTIE,  M.P.-Sir  J.  Kay-Shuttleworth— Roundell  Palmer 
—  Goldwin  Smith — The  University  Commission— East  India  Civil 
Service  Examinations — Lord  Macaulay's  Committee — Letters  on 
University  Reform. 

fTlHE  movement  for  reform  at  Oxford,  which  cul- 
-*-  minated  in  the  Act  of  1850,  was  the  result  of  long- 
continued  agitation  both  without  and  within  the 
University.  The  first  beginnings  of  it  may  be  traced 
to  Sir  "William  Hamilton's  articles  in  the  Edinburgh 
Review  of  1831-1834.  The  external  pressure  was  directed 
to  the  nationalization  of  the  University  through 
the  admission  of  Dissenters,  while  the  earliest  efforts 
from  within  aimed  rather  at  the  revival  of  the  Pro- 
fessoriate, and  the  abolition  of  obsolete  restrictions. 
Early  in  1839  a  motion  had  been  introduced  in  Convoca- 
tion by  the  Hebdomadal  Board2  proposing  to  institute 
new  Professorships,  and  to  require  the  attendance  of 
all  undergraduates  at  Professors'  lectures.  This  proposal 
was  rejected  at  the  time,  but  its  principles  were  embodied 

1  Cp.  vol.  ii,  chap.  v. 

2  It  proposed  a  revision  of  the  Statute  '  De  Lectoribus  Publicis.' 


University  Reform  173 

in  an  important  pamphlet,  which  was  drawn  up  that 
autumn  by  Archibald  Campbell  Tait  with  the  help 
of  Arthur  Penrhyn  Stanley1.  In  this  it  was  proposed 
to  institute  what  would  have  amounted  in  effect  to  a 
system  of  post-graduate  Professorial  teaching. 

The  practical  reforming  spirit  was  eclipsed  for  a  time 
by  clerical  reaction  and  the  excitement  which  followed 
the  publication  of  Tract  XC.  But  Stanley,  who  had 
already  done  good  service  in  the  cause  of  reform,  began 
a  new  crusade  when  the  ecclesiastical  ferment  was  abated. 
This  appears  from  several  letters  in  the  Stanley-Jowett 
correspondence  of  1845-6.  On  April  10,  1845,  Mr.  W.  D. 
Christie,  the  public-spirited  member  for  Weymouth,  who 
had  previously  championed  the  cause  of  the  Dissenters 
and  of  the  University  of  London,  brought  forward  a 
motion  for  a  Royal  Commission  of  Inquiry 2.  He  said 
in  an  able  speech  of  the  following  year3,  'he  believed 
that  some  of  the  most  eminent  and  distinguished  men  in 
the  University  would  rejoice  if  such  a  Commission  were 
issued.'  Two  references  to  Mr.  Christie  occur  in  Jowett's 
letters  to  Stanley  of  the  year  1846.  In  one  he  says  lightly, 
'  Think  of  a  Parliamentary  Committee  at  which  .  .  . 
everybody  should  tell  tales  of  everybody.'  The  other  is 
more  serious,  being  in  fact  an  elaborate  draft  of  questions 
that  might  be  submitted  by  such  a  Parliamentary 
Committee  to  Heads  of  Houses  and  other  persons  in 

1  Life  of  Dean  Stanley,  vol.  i.  ment   towards   a  comprehensive 
pp.  230,  418 ;   Life  of  Archibald  measure.     Sir   Robert  Inglis,   as 
Campbell  Tait,  vol.  i.  pp.  69-71.  member    for    Oxford,    was    the 
Several  other  pamphlets  on  the  strenuous   opponent  of  all  such 
subject  appeared  in  the  same  year  legislation. 

— one  by  the  Rev.  P.  S.  H.  Payne,  3  Hansard,  vol.  Ixxxvii.  p.  1242. 

a  Fellow  of  Balliol.  Debate   on   Mr.  Ewart's  motion 

2  Hansard.vol.lxxix.p.393.  This  for  the  education  of  the  people, 
was  the  first  attempt  in  Parlia- 


174  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  vi 

Oxford.  This  document  is  crossed  with  a  memorandum 
in  another  hand,  '  from  Stanley  for  Mr.  Christie, 
25/2/1846  V  From  1846  onwards  movements  were  pro- 
ceeding simultaneously  from  within  and  from  without. 
In  the  autumn  of  that  year  a  scheme  for  the  reform 
of  the  Examination  Statute  was  proposed  by  F.  Jeune. 
Master  of  Pembroke2,  in  a  Committee  of  the  Heads,  but 
never  got  beyond  the  Hebdomadal  Board.  In  September, 
1846,  Mr.  Horsman  proposed  to  advocate  the  cause  of 
University  reform  in  Parliament,  and  in  1847  J.  Kay- 
Shuttleworth  visited  Oxford  to  obtain  further  information 
with  a  view  to  legislative  action.  But  Jowett  was  not 
minded  to  leave  the  matter  in  the  hands  either  of  Dissent- 
ing members  of  Parliament  or  the  Education  Department. 
In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Roundell  Palmer3  he  urged  him  to 
represent  the  views  of  the  Oxford  reformers  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  His  letter  exhibits  clearly  the  scope  of 
the  writer's  aims  at  this  time,  while  the  scruple  which 
withheld  his  correspondent  from  acceding  to  the  desire 
sufficiently  indicates  the  general  state  of  opinion4.  On 
March  4,  1848,  a  Memorial  signed  by  two-thirds  of 
the  Tutors,  proposing  a  revision  of  the  Examination 
Statute,  was  presented  to  the  Hebdomadal  Board.  It 
maintained  the  principle  of  an  intermediate  examina- 
tion. This  was  immediately  followed  up  with  an  anony- 
mous pamphlet5,  of  which  the  'advertisement'  is  dated 
March  13,  1848.  A  letter  to  Lingen  of  April  3  shows 
this  pamphlet  to  have  been  the  joint  work  of  Jowett 

1  About  the  same  time  Dr.  Pnsey  2  Afterwards  Bishop  of  Peter- 
was  interested  in  a  scheme  for  the  borough, 
extension  of  University  education  3  Afterwards  Lord  Selborne. 
through  the  foundation  of  Halls  4  pp.  188-192. 
or  Colleges  under  Church  autho-  5  Suggestions  for  an  improvement 
rity.     Life  ofE.  B.  Pusey,  vol.  iii.  of  the  Examination  Statute.     Ox- 
p-  79.  ford,  1848. 


1846^1854]  University  Reform  175 

and  Stanley1,  and  both  the  preface  and  several  of  the 
suggestions  are  unquestionably  Jowett's. 

The  following  sentences  are  curiously  characteristic 
of  him : — 

'  Our  only  defence  against  attacks  from  without  is  to  build 
up  from  within,  to  enlarge  our  borders  that  we  may  increase  the 
number  of  our  friends.  We  have  no  one  to  fear  but  ourselves. 
At  this  moment,  to  use  the  language  of  an  eminent  writer, 
are  we  not  living  "behind  our  dykes"  in  fear  of  the  German 
Ocean  ?  There  may  be  enemies  from  whom  it  is  right  to 
fly,  but  the  tide  of  opinion  cannot  be  escaped  in  this  way.' 

One  peculiarity  of  these  Suggestions  was  the  inclusion 
of  a  School  of  Theology  (both  Pass  and  Class)  side  by 
side  with  the  subjects  of  Philosophy,  History,  and  Philo- 
logy.— When  a  Theological  School  was  founded  under 
different  auspices  in  1867,  Jowett,  though  Professor  of 
Greek,  was  excluded  from  the  Examining  Board! — In 
recommending  the  study  of  theology  in  the  spring  of 
1848,  he  employed  arguments  which  are  strangely  familiar 
to  readers  of  his  work  on  St.  Paul : — 

'  Religious  persons  feel  that  the  evidences  of  Paley  or 
Lardner  are  not  the  reasons  of  their  belief,  or  the  answers  to 
their  difficulties.  Can  it  be  truly  said  that  much  has  been 
done  in  this  place  during  the  last  twenty  years  for  Scriptural 
interpretation,  which  seems  to  be  the  most  hopeful  mine  in 
theology,  and  strangely  enough  the  least  explored  ?  It  would 
hardly  have  been  an  unreasonable  hope  that  the  meaning  of 
Scripture,  like  tnat  of  any  other  book,  might  by  this  time  have 
become  fixed,  and  raised  above  the  fancies  of  sects  or  individuals.' 

The  discussion  of  the  new  Examination  Statute  came 
on  in  the  following  autumn,  and  it  was  passed  in  1849. 
The  result  was  not  altogether  in  accordance  with  Jowett's 
views,  which  had  aimed  at  something  like  the  old  final 
examination  to  come  at  the  end  of  the  second  year,  after 

1  P-  i93- 


176  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  vi 

which  undergraduates  should  be  encouraged  to  specialize 
within  certain  limits.  This  would  have  been  in  effect 
to  carry  out  the  principle  of  Tait  and  Stanley's  pamphlet 
of  1839.  As  a  preparatory  step,  Jowett  suggested  a  plan 
for  courses  of  lectures  to  be  given  in  the  Schools  by  dis- 
tinguished graduates,  which  might  serve  as  a  temporary 
substitute  for  a  Professorial  system1.  But  in  this  as 
in  some  other  schemes,  by  which  he  sought  to  lure 
back  friends  to  Oxford,  and  make  them  sharers  of  his 
own  labours  there,  he  was  disappointed 2. 

From  the  facts  above  stated  it  appears  how  distinctly 
in  the  reforming  movement  at  Oxford,  which  is  commonly 
dated  from  1848,  Stanley  and  Jowett  were  foremost  in  the 
field. 

By  the  autumn  of  1848,  however,  several  other  eminent 
men  had  joined  in  the  agitation;  amongst  whom  were 
Mark  Pattison,  Richard  Congreve,  John  Conington,  and 
Goldwin  Smith,  who  became  Secretary  to  the  Executive 
Commission  of  1854.  The  whole  movement  appears  to 
him  to  have  grown  out  of  Newmanism  through  a  re- 
action. He  writes  (1894) : — 

'Newman's  romantic  picture  of  the  mediaeval  Church 
carried  away  the  young,  who  had  before  seen  nothing  but 
high  and  diy  Anglicanism,  with  its  social  and  political 
accompaniments.  But  Newmanism,  though  ecclesiastical  and 
reactionary,  was  at  the  same  time  revolutionary  in  its  way. 

1  See  p.  31  of  the  Suggestions :  for  any  Master  of  Arts,  or  Doctor 
'It  would  only  be  acting  up  to  of  Theology,  Law  or  Medicine, 
the  spirit  of  our  own  institutions  to  deliver  lectures  on  any  branch 
if  the  liberty  which  at  present  of  knowledge  which  fell  within 
only  exists  in  the  Statute  book  his  sphere  or  capacity.' 
were  practically  recognized  and  2  It  is  worth  remembering  that 
encouraged  by  allowing  (under  a  Cambridge  Syndicate  was  work- 
such  instructions  [sic]  as  were  ing  at  the  same  time  and  prepar- 
thought  necessary)  the  free  use  of  ing  the  way  for  the  Moral  Sciences 
thepublicSchools  as  lecture  rooms  and  Natural  Sciences  Triposes. 


1846-1854]  University  Reform  177 

It  was  a  revolt  against  the  old  high  and  dry  regime.  It  cut 
active  minds  loose  from  their  traditional  moorings  and  launched 
them  on  a  sea  of  speculation  over  which  they  at  last  floated  to 
a  great  diversity  of  havens.  Nor  was  Newmanism  politically 
conservative.  On  the  contrary,  it  sneered  at  conservatism,  which 
was  closely  connected  with  Protestant  orthodoxy,  and  a  par- 
ticular object  of  its  hatred  and  contempt  was  Peel.  Ward,  if 
I  remember  rightly,  professed  himself  a  Eadical.  Then  came 
the  crisis,  brought  on  by  the  condemnation  of  Ward,  which 
was  followed  by  the  secession  of  Newman.  Those  who 
refused  the  leap  recoiled  more  or  less  from  the  brink.  Some  of 
them,  such  as  Mark  Pattison,  recoiled,  as  you  know,  the  whole 
length  of  thorough-going  Liberalism.  They  by  degrees  tacitly 
coalesced  with  the  knot  of  original  Liberals,  though  they 
were  rather  liable  to  mental  irresolution  and  to  recurrences 
of  asceticism  in  a  new  form. 

'  In  some  of  us  Liberalism  soon  took  the  practical  shape  of 
an  effort  to  reform  and  emancipate  the  University,  to  strike  off 
the  fetters  of  mediaeval  statutes  from  it  and  from  its  Colleges, 
set  it  free  from  the  predominance  of  ecclesiasticism,  recall  it 
to  its  proper  work,  and  restore  it  to  the  nation.' 

In  1848-9  Jowett  and  Stanley  were  actively  engaged 
in  preparing  a  joint  work  on  the  Universities  to  which 
others  were  to  have  contributed,  but  before  it  could 
be  published  the  Commission  had  been  issued.  The  pre- 
paration of  the  book,  however,  laid  the  ground  for 
Jowett's  evidence  and  for  Stanley's  memorable  Report. 

While  efforts  towards  reform  had  thus  been  ripening 
from  within,  the  attacks  on  the  existing  system  from 
without  became  more  and  more  clamorous  ;  the  Noncon- 
formists insisting  on  the  admission  of  Dissenters,  and  the 
advocates  of  Natural  Science,  Modern  History,  and  '  useful 
knowledge '  deprecating  the  narrowness  of  the  old  cur- 
riculum. The  curriculum,  indeed,  had  been  already 
widened  by  the  change  in  the  Examination  Statute ;  but 
the  new  regulations  had  not  yet  taken  effect. 

VOL.    I.  N 


178  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  vi 

The  crisis  came  in  1850,  when,  on  April  25,  Mr.  Hey- 
wood,  the  Radical  member  for  North  Lancashire,  moved 
in  the  House  of  Commons  a  long  resolution  requesting 
the  issue  of  a  Royal  Commission  of  Inquiry  into  the 
state  of  the  Universities.  This  was  strongly  opposed 
by  Mr.  Gladstone,  Mr.  Roundell  Palmer,  and  Sir  Robert 
Inglis.  But  Lord  John  Russell,  as  Prime  Minister,  while 
declining  to  vote  for  Mr.  Heywood's  resolution,  promised 
on  behalf  of  the  Government  that  a  Royal  Commission 
of  Inquiry  should  be  issued.  The  Commissioners  were. 
Samuel  Hinds,  Bishop  of  Norwich ;  A.  C.  Tait,  Dean 
of  Carlisle  ;  F.  Jeune,  Master  of  Pembroke  ;  H.  G.  Liddell, 
Head  Master  of  "Westminster  ;  J.  L.  Dampier,  M.  A.  ; 
Baden  Powell,  Savilian  Professor  of  Geometry  ;  G.  H.  S. 
Johnson,  Fellow  of  Queen's ;  with  A.  P.  Stanley,  Fellow 
of  University,  as  Secretary. 

A  copy  of  the  following  unpublished  document,  which 
was  addressed  to  Lord  John  Russell,  has  been  furnished 
by  the  kindness  of  the  Very  Rev.  "W.  C.  Lake,  late  Dean 
of  Durham :  — 

'We,  the  undersigned,  Tutors  of  Colleges  in  the  University 
of  Oxford,  beg  to  thank  your  Lordship  for  the  intention  you 
have  expressed,  as  Head  of  Her  Majesty's  Government,  of 
advising  Her  Majesty  to  appoint  a  Eoyal  Commission  to 
inquire  into  the  state  of  the  Universities,  and  for  the  friendly 
terms  in  which  your  intention  was  announced.  We  do  not 
think  it  desirable  at  present  to  address  your  Lordship  publicly, 
but  we  wish  to  express  our  belief  that  changes  are  necessary 
which  can  only  be  made  by  the  assistance  of  Parliament,  and 
in  the  confident  hope  that  the  proposed  inquiry  will  be  carried 
on  with  a  real  desire  for  the  good  of  the  University,  we  are 
ready  to  give  the  Commissioners  every  information  in  our 
power. 

B.  JOWETT  W.  C.  LAKE 

A.  P.  STANLEY  GOLD  WIN  SMITH.' 


1846-1854]  University  Reform  179 

Those  who  in  Oxford  bore  the  name  of  reformers  had 
not  all  precisely  the  same  ends  in  view.  They  were 
agreed  that  the  constitution  of  the  University  must 
be  altered,  that  its  benefits  must  be  extended,  restric- 
tions abolished,  and  the  Professoriate  strengthened.  But 
Oxford  would  not  have  been  Oxford,  if  individuals  had 
not  widely  differed  as  to  the  particular  changes  required. 
As  usual,  there  were  many  who  thought  more  of  their  own 
rights  than  of  educational  needs.  Resident  members  of 
the  University  were  naturally  jealous  of  the  non-resident 
vote,  and  sought  to  revive  Congregation,  i.  e.  the  House 
of  Residents,  for  legislative  purposes,  in  place  of  Con- 
vocation, i.  e.  the  body  of  M. A.'s  at  large.  They  would 
have  transferred  the  initiative  from  the  Heads  of  Houses 
(whose  action  in  the  Tractarian  controversy  had  pre- 
judiced their  cause  not  only  with  Liberal  reformers, 
but  with  High  Churchmen  of  the  newer  school)  to  the 
whole  body  of  residents.  College  Tutors  were  made 
uneasy  by  the  increasing  importance  of  private  tuition ; 
and  opinions  differed  greatly  as  to  the  best  way  of 
making  the  University  a  national  institution. 

Jowett's  evidence  before  the  Commission  sets  forth  the 
points  which  at  this  time  he  considered  at  once  desirable 
and  practicable.  His  views  as  there  expressed  are  any- 
thing but  revolutionary  :  far  less  so,  for  example,  than 
those  of  Mr.  Robert  Lowe,  who  had  recently  returned 
from  Australia. 

Jowett  sought  to  strengthen  what  he  found  existing l. 
For  example,  while  proposing  to  enlarge  the  Professoriate, 
he  emphatically  approved  of  the  Tutorial  system. 

1  'What  I  want  to  see  is  the  Church    and    State,    instead    of 

Universities  made  somewhat  more  representing  the   worst  half  of 

dependent  on  the  State,  so  as  to  the  clergy.' — Letter  to  A.  P.  S., 

become    a    real    link    between  1850. 

N   2 


i8o  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  vi 

'In  foreign  Universities,'  he  says,  '  the  Professoriate  system 
has  been  resorted  to,  not  from  choice,  but  from  necessity. 
Our  wealth  gives  us  the  means  of  combining  the  two,  and 
of  carrying  out  the  spirit  of  each  more  perfectly. ' 

Nor  does  it  appear  that  he  was,  as  yet,  in  full  sympathy 
with  those  who  anticipated  the  extension  of  the  benefits 
of  the  University  to  non-Collegiate  students.  In  other 
ways  his  evidence  is  not  that  of  a  violent  reformer. 
He  would  have  limited  the  powers  of  Convocation  without 
extending  the  powers  of  Congregation  or  constituting 
an  elective  Hebdomadal  Board.  He  clearly  foresaw  the 
evil  that  was  likely  to  result,  when  the  unobtrusive 
performance  of  College  duties  would  give  way  to  the 
excitement  of  debates  in  Congregation.  This  would 
probably  '  have  the  effect  of  plunging  us  into  a  perpetual 
state  of  agitation.'  Instead  of  giving  Congregation  the 
initiative,  as  had  been  proposed,  he  would  have  simply 
added  the  Professors,  whose  number  was  to  be  increased, 
to  the  Hebdomadal  Board.  He  says,  'The  changes  at 
present  required  are  such  as  have  become  necessary  from 
lapse  of  time  in  institutions  that  have  not  the  power 
to  amend  themselves.  We  are  not  to  infer  from  this  that 
the  University  needs  to  continue  for  ever  legislating,  or 
that  it  is  well  to  form  a  constitution  which  will  give  the 
greatest  facility  for  such  an  object.' 

For  University  extension,  he  looks  to  improvements 
in  College  management,  rather  than  to  private  lodgings 
or  '  independent  Halls,'  but  suggests  that  noblemen  and 
men  of  large  fortune  might  be  allowed  to  reside  with 
private  Tutors  in  the  town;  referring  to  the  advantage 
which  Lord  Palmerston  and  others  had  received  from 
such  residence  in  a  former  generation,  at  Edinburgh. 

'The  benefits  of  a  University  education  cannot  be  thought 
to  consist  merely  in  the  acquirement  of  knowledge,  but  in 


1846-1854]  University  Reform  181 

the  opportunities  of  society  and  of  forming  friends ;  in  short, 
in  the  experience  of  life  gained  by  it  and  the  consequent  im- 
provement of  character.  With  many,  a  College  is  their  first 
means  of  introduction  to  the  world.  Advantages  of  this  kind 
cannot  be  wholly  secured  to  the  poorer  student,  although  he 
most  stands  in  need  of  them,  yet  they  should  not  be  completely 
lost  sight  of.  ...  The  poor  student  should  be  scrupulously 
treated  as  a  gentleman.' 

When,  however,  the  Commissioners  proposed  a  scheme 
for  establishing  new  Halls  in  connexion  with  the  Colleges, 
he  approved  of  it  and  looked  upon  such  Halls  as  a 
useful  occasion  for  the  gradual  admission  of  Dissenters, 
'so  getting  rid  of  the  scandal  of  requiring  youths  of 
eighteen  to  sign  the  Thirty-nine  Articles.'  At  this  time 
and  long  afterwards,  Jowett  had  little  sympathy  with 
Nonconformists,  but  he  regarded  their  admission  to  the 
University  as  an  essential  part  of  any  national  scheme, 
though  '  their  admission  on  the  Foundations  would  upset 
things  too  much  V 

He  thinks  that  sinecure  Fellowships  are  doomed,  but 
is  strongly  in  favour  of  removing  the  existing  restrictions 
upon  Fellowships,  including  the  clerical  restriction.  He 
does  not  explicitly  touch  the  question  of  the  marriage 
of  Fellows.  He  treats  very  lightly  the  scruple  about 
Founders'  intentions,  which  had  been  twice  already  over- 
ridden2. For  the  extension  of  the  Professoriate  he  suggests 
the  addition  of  Professorships  of  Latin,  English  Litera- 
ture, Ethnology,  Comparative  Philology,  and  Geography ; 
also  additional  Professorships  in  Greek,  Latin,  Ancient 
History,  Modern  History,  Ancient  Philosophy,  Modern 
Philosophy,  Logic,  the  Physical  Sciences,  and  Hebrew. 

In  establishing  new  Professorships  (not  Theological), 
he  says  : — 

1  From  a  letter  to  R.  R.  W.  2  i.  e.  once  at  the  Reformation, 
Lingen  in  1846.  once  in  the  time  of  Laud. 


1 82  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  vi 

'It  appears  to  me  unnecessary  that  religious  tests  should 
be  required.  There  seems  to  be  no  reason  to  fear  in  scientific 
men  any  peculiar  hostility  to  our  ecclesiastical  institutions ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  their  habit  of  mind  renders  them 
averse  to  such  restrictions.  In  this  way  only  can  we  fulfil 
the  injunction  which  Sir  H.  Savile  lays  upon  his  Trustees, 
that  they  should  seek  for  the  fittest  persons  out  of  the  whole 
world.  It  would  be  of  little  use  to  multiply  professors  of 
physical  science,  if  such  men  as  Liebig  or  Faraday  were  liable 
to  be  excluded.' 

One  object  which  he  alleges  for  the  extension  of  the 
Professoriate  is  'to  encourage  persons  resident  in  the 
University  to  carry  on  their  studies  with  the  view  of 
hereafter  filling  Professorial  chairs.  The  College  Tutor, 
who  is  in  most  cases  waiting  for  a  living,  has  no  induce- 
ment to  study  beyond  what  is  necessary  for  the  pre- 
paration of  his  lectures.'  Jowett  is  in  favour  of  a  Theo- 
logical School,  in  preference  to  the  establishment  of 
Theological  Colleges.  And,  lastly,  he  sees  no  harm  in  the 
system  of  Private  Tutors,  characteristically  adding :  '  The 
evils  arising  from  the  excessive  use  of  Private  Tutors  can 
only  be  corrected  (i)  by  College  Tutors  getting  up  their 
lectures  carefully,  and  rendering  private  assistance  them- 
selves, (2)  by  the  manner  in  which  the  Public  Examina- 
tions are  conducted.'  About  the  time  of  the  nomination 
of  the  Commissioners  he  wrote  to  Stanley l : — 

1  At  a  still  earlier  time,  he  had  fidious,  nobody  could  trust  him. 

written,  with  reference  to  their  .  .  .  The  natural  first  step  would 

joint  work  on  the  Universities  :  have  been  the  revival  of  the  Pro- 

'  I  should  be  almost  inclined  to  fessorial  system,  and  the  second, 

make  a  fight  for  open  Fellowships  the    stimulus    of    examinations  : 

and   Professorships   only.     I    am  only  we  have  inverted  the  order, 

afraid  the  necessity   of  getting  because  one  could  be  done  with- 

rid  of  the  Heads  is  the  same  as  out  the  assistance  of  Parliament, 

the  necessity  for  getting  rid  of  the  other  not.' 
Charles  I,  that   he  was  so  per- 


1846-1854]  University  Reform  183 

' .  .  .  I  hope  the  Commissioners  will  chiefly  rely  on  them- 
selves and  not  on  the  witnesses  whom  they  examine.  .  .  . 
We  have  long  ago  settled,  I  mean  as  our  own  opinion,  that 
open  Fellowships,  Professorships,  modification  of  clerical 
restrictions  (certainly),  change  in  the  constitution  (probably), 
should  be  the  great  topics.  To  which  I  would  be  glad  to  add 
"Poor  Students"  and  "Expenses"  (although  there  are  diffi- 
culties in  the  matter) ;  first,  because  it  is  a  most  popular  topic 
— the  University  educates  1,500,  why  not  3,000?  Is  it  a 
sufficient  ov  eve/ca  1  of  a  national  institution  that  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  it  educates  1,500,  two-thirds  of  whom  are  the 
sons  of  country  gentlemen  and  clergymen?  Jeune  will  be 
lukewarm  in  this  matter,  but  I  hope  you  and  Tait  will  take  it 
up.  If  the  object  of  the  Commission  is  only  to  make  a  more 
intellectual  aristocracy,  this  may  be  good,  but  will  hardly 
command  much  sympathy.  Secondly,  unless  the  Universities 
are  to  be  wholly  separated  from  the  Church  it  is  of  the  greatest 
importance  that  poor  clergymen  should  be  educated  at  the 
University  and  not  at  Theological  Colleges.  The  poor  student 
clergy  have  always  a  tendency  to  High  Church  views,  because 
they  give  them  a  position  which  they  had  not  before.  This 
tendency  would,  I  think,  be  very  much  diminished  if  the 
University  became  their  home  more  and  its  Professors  their 
teachers. 

'  The  general  principle  I  would  be  guided  by  in  reference  to 
the  Commission  is  to  ask  oneself  plainly  what  changes  have 
taken  place  in  the  country  in  the  last  200  years,  and  then  as  far 
as  possible  transfer  them  to  the  University.  If  the  relation  of 
one  class  to  another  is  different,  if  the  subjects  of  knowledge 
are  different,  the  University  must  receive  corresponding  changes 
sooner  or  later  before  it  can  return  to  a  natural  state ;  only 
remembering  that  it  is  a  place  of  education  chiefly,  and  that 
education  clings  naturally  to  the  past.  .  .  . 

'  I  feel  that  I  do  not  agree  either  with  Vaughan's  intellectual 
aristocracy  as  the  idea  of  a  University,  nor  with  the  "  gentle- 
men heresy"  that  appears  to  be  partially  entertained  by 
Jeune  and  by  G.  Smith.  I  hope  that  the  small  numbers 

1  '  Raison  d'etre.' 


184  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  vi 

educated  at  a  University  will  be  prominently  urged  by  the 
Commission — it  is  an  effective  topic.  And  although  it  can  do 
no  good  to  force  men  to  Oxford  who  are  unfitted  by  previous 
education,  it  is  of  the  greatest  use  to  awaken  in  people's  minds 
a  sense  of  the  necessity  of  a  liberal  education  for  more  than  the 
numbers  contained  in  Harrow,  Winchester,  Eton,  &c.  The 
abused  Grammar-school  and  Charity  foundations  supply  abun- 
dant means.  .  .  .' 

Although  the  Commissioners  issued  their  Report  in  1852, 
the  Universities  Act  embodying  their  recommendations 
was  passed  only  in  1854,  when  it  received  the  active 
support  of  Mr.  Gladstone.  It  established  Congregation, 
but  instead  of  giving  the  initiative  to  that  body,  created 
an  elective  Council l  representing  Heads,  Professors,  and 
resident  M.A.'s;  and,  what  Jowett  always  regarded  as 
more  important,  it  provided  for  the  abolition  of  many 
local  restrictions  upon  Fellowships,  and  opened  them  to 
general  competition.  Before  the  measure  left  the  House 
of  Commons,  Dissenters  had  been  admitted  to  Matricula- 
tion and  to  all  degrees  lower  than  M.A. 

Jowett  was  anxious  to  impress  upon  his  pupils  his 
conviction  that  life  at  the  University  would  be  much  the 
same  after  the  reforms  as  it  had  been  before.  Mean- 
while his  part  in  the  whole  business  brought  him 
forward,  and  made  his  real  position  better  known  to 
public  men.  He  was  one  of  the  first  set  of  Public 
Examiners  under  the  new  system2,  and  was  recognized 
along  with  Mark  Pattison  and  J.  M.  "Wilson  as  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Liberal  party,  an  estimation  which  earned 

1  This  appears  to  have  been  who  was  a  Wadham  man,  and 

partly  due  to  a  suggestion  of  Dr.  though  he  declined  the  office,  he 

Pusey's.  SeeLifeofE.£,Pusey,  was  touched  by  the  generosity  of 

vol.  iii.  pp.  391-393.  Jowett,  who  had  said  that  he 

*  Richard  Congreve  had  been  would  not  take  the  post  if  Con- 
nominated  by  one  of  the  Proctors  greve  were  passed  over. 


1846-1854]  Civil  Service  Reform  185 

for  him  the   suspicion  of  the  older  Tutors  and  of  the 
majority  of  the  Heads  of  Colleges. 

His  position  at  Oxford  led  to  his  being  consulted  with 
regard  to  educational  movements  of  a  wider  scope,  such 
as  that  for  opening  to  competition  posts  in  the  Home 
Civil  Service  and  in  that  of  the  East  India  Company,  in 
which  Sir  James  Kay-Shuttleworth  and  Sir  Charles  Tre- 
velyan  severally  took  a  leading  part.  Two  sayings  of 
theirs  recorded  by  Lord  Lingen,  may  be  repeated  as  illus- 
trating the  courage  of  public  servants  in  those  days,  of 
which  posterity  now  reaps  the  benefit.  Sir  J.  Kay-  Shuttle  - 
worth  had  said  to  Lingen,  who  was  serving  under  him,  with 
reference  to  some  change,  '  Get  it  done  ;  let  the  objectors 
howl.'  Sir  Charles  Trevelyan  said,  'The  Civil  Service 
requires  as  much  pluck  as  the  Military.'  A  letter  from 
the  Rev.  B.  Jowett  (January,  1854)  is  printed  together 
with  the  Report  on  the  Organization  of  the  Permanent 
Civil  Service,  by  Sir  Stafford  H.  Northcote  and  Sir 
C.  Trevelyan,  dated  November  23,  1853.  The  reformers 
in  the  Civil  Service  were  turned  into  ridicule  by  Anthony 
Trollope  in  his  novel  of  The  Three  Clerks,  where  Sir 
Charles  Trevelyan  figures  as  '  Sir  Gregory  Hardlines,' 
and  an  imaginary  caricature  of  Jowett  appears  as 
'Mr.  Jobbles.' 

It  was  perhaps  through  his  friend  Lingen,  who  was  now 
at  the  head  of  the  Education  Office  in  London,  and  also 
through  Sir  Stafford  Northcote,  that  Jowett  came  to  corre- 
spond with  Mr.  (afterwards  Lord)  Macaulay  and  Sir  Charles 
Trevelyan  about  the  Indian  appointments.  He  gave  an 
eager  welcome  to  the  plan,  not  only  on  general  grounds, 
but  because  he  saw  in  it  a  new  stimulus  for  the  Higher 
Education  in  England.  Thus  commenced  his  life-long 
interest  in  the  public  service  of  India ;  and  he  was  thence- 


1 86  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  vi 

forth  actively  engaged  in  the  promotion  of  measures 
which  had  no  less  far-reaching  consequences  even  than 
the  Oxford  reforms.  The  correspondence  led  to  his 
nomination  as  a  member  of  Mr.  Macaulay's  Committee 
under  the  India  Act  of  1 853  for  opening  to  general  com- 
petition the  appointments  of  the  Honourable  East  India 
Company's  Service. 

The  Committee  held  its  sittings  in  1854,  and  reported 
in  November  of  that  year.  Macaulay  drew  up  the  Eeport, 
but  some  passages  bear  the  stamp  of  Jowett's  mind. 

For  example : — 

'  We  believe  that  men  who  have  been  engaged  up  to  one  or 
two-and-twenty  in  studies  which  have  no  connexion  with  the 
business  of  any  profession,  and  of  which  the  effect  is  merely 
to  open,  to  invigorate,  and  to  enrich  the  mind,  will  generally 
be  found,  in  the  business  of  every  profession,  superior  to  men 
who  have  at  eighteen  or  nineteen  devoted  themselves  to 
the  special  studies  of  their  calling.  The  most  illustrious 
English  jurists  have  been  men  who  have  never  opened  a  law- 
book  till  after  the  close  of  a  distinguished  academical  career ; 
nor  is  there  any  reason  to  believe  that  they  would  have 
been  greater  lawyers  if  they  had  passed  in  drawing  pleas  and 
conveyances  the  time  which  they  gave  to  Thucydides,  to 
Cicero,  and  to  Newton.  .  .  . 

'We  propose  to  include  the  moral  sciences  in  the  scheme  of 
examination.  .  .  .  Whether  this  study  shall  have  to  do  with 
mere  words  or  with  things,  whether  it  shall  degenerate  into 
a  formal  and  scholastic  pedantry,  or  shall  train  the  mind  for 
the  highest  purposes  of  active  life,  will  depend,  to  a  great  extent, 
on  the  way  in  which  the  examination  is  conducted.  We  are 
of  opinion  that  the  examination  should  be  conducted  in  the 
freest  manner,  that  mere  technicalities  should  be  avoided,  and 
that  the  candidate  should  not  be  confined  to  any  particular 
system.  .  .  .  The  object  of  the  examiners  should  rather  be  to 
put  to  the  test  the  candidate's  powers  of  mind  than  to  ascertain 
the  extent  of  his  metaphysical  reading.' 


187 


LETTEKS  ON  UNIVERSITY  REFORM, 
1846-1848. 

To  R.  R.  W.  LINGEN. 

BEAUMAEIS,  September  5,  1846. 

...  I  am  very  glad  you  have  made  acquaintance  with 
Horsman,  of  whom  I  have  heard  Stanley  speak  highly.  If  he 
is  up  to  the  speaking  part  of  it  I  should  think  he  was  a  very 
fit  person  to  take  up  University  reform.  The  Universities 
seem  to  me  a  more  promising  nucleus  for  education,  if  we 
could  but  educate  them  first,  than  Dr.  Kay-Shuttleworth  and 
Privy  Council  schemes.  If  you  and  I  and  Stanley  were  Canons 
of  Christ  Church,  I  wonder  what  difference  it  would  make 
in  the  perspective  of  our  view.  In  what  increased  ratio,  think 
you,  should  we  feel  the  responsibility  of  change?  Not  of 
course  in  the  gross  palpable  form  of  as  200  :  1200 — but  in  some 
remote  corner  of  the  mind  a  maturer  wisdom  would  spring  up, 
and  we  should  say  of  the  efforts  of  the  juveniles,  '  This  also 
is  vanity.'  After  all,  men  not  systems  might  seem  to  be 
wanted.  Quid  ultra  tendis.  Here  are  we.  .  .  . 

To  R.  R.  W.  LINGEX. 

BEAUMAKIS,  September,  1846. 

.  .  .  About  University  reform,  I  fully  agree  in  the  necessity 
of  getting  practical  suggestions  ready  for  the  opportunity  when 
it  occurs.  The  greatest  change  within,  the  least  without, 
nothing  unprecedented,  nothing  without  regard  to  the  better 
spirit  of  the  place,  seems  the  conservative  side  of  the  question. 
What  is  the  feeling  among  lawyers  respecting  Corporation 
property  ?  I  suppose  to  save  additional  theories  as  much  as 
possible  and  class  it  all  with  private  property.  If  so,  to  assert 
a  constitutional  against  the  legal  view  is  the  indoctrination 
to  be  instilled.  Something  may  be  made  of  the  anomalous 


i88  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  vi 

character  of  the  University,  neither  national,  ecclesiastical, 
nor  private,  but  all  three  together  :  to  a  case  so  complicated,  it 
might  be  urged,  it  is  impossible  to  apply  the  simple  principles 
which  regulate  either  corporate  or  private  property,  and  College 
property  might  be  isolated  from  the  general  fear  about  vested 
interests. 

To  E.  E.  W.  LINGEN. 

BALLIOL,  Sunday  Evening,  [1847]. 

Your  master,  'master  Doctor  Caius1,'  not  the  French 
Doctor,  paid  a  visit  of  inspection  to  our  Normal  School 
yesterday.  You  can  guess  his  object. 

The  particulars  you  can  hear  from  Temple.  .  .  .  My  purpose 
in  writing  is  to  say  for  myself  and  for  Stanley  that  we  are 
quite  willing  to  be  guided  by  your  judgement  in  the  matter. 
Shuttleworth's  name  is  I  think  an  omen  of  success  in  the 
scheme,  at  the  same  time  he  is  as  unfit  as  the  two  barbarians 
Hengist  and  Horsa  to  reform  the  University,  and  the  prospect 
of  good  is  really  how  far  he  will  be  advised  by  others. 

We  think  that  if  we  and  others  undertake  the  somewhat 
invidious  part  he  assigns  to  us,  we  ought  to  have  some 
understanding  with  the  Ministry  that  they  are  to  support 
us,  time  and  opportunity  favouring,  with  a  friendly  measure 
of  University  reform  ;  in  other  words,  that  we  are  not  simply 
made  a  cat's-paw  of  by  Kay-Shuttleworth  in  a  private  specula- 
tion of  his  own. 

We  have,  I  think,  provided  this  sort  of  assurance  were  given, 
a  sufficient  respect  for  K.-S.'s  usefulness  to  be  willing  to 
act  with  him  in  such  a  cause,  unless  you  dissuade. 

To  EOUNDELL  PALMER,  ESQ.,  M.P.2 

BALLIOL,  November  15,  [1847]. 
MY  DEAR  PALMER, 

I  take  the  liberty  of  writing  to  you  under  the  idea 
that  you  are  half  an  M.P.  for  the  University  of  Oxford. 
I  have  heard  several  persons  lately  speak  of  University  reform, 

1  J.  P.  Kay-Shuttleworth,  M.D.,  head  of  the  Education  Department. 
He  received  a  Baronetcy  on  retiring  in  1849.  2  Lord  Selborne. 


Letters  on  University  Reform,  1846-48    189 

and  express  a  strong  wish  that  you  could  be  induced  to  turn 
your  attention  to  the  subject.  They  were  Clough,  Lake, 
Lingen,  Temple,  Stanley,  T.  Arnold,  and  others  whom  you 
probably  do  not  know.  Their  feeling  was  that  there  was 
no  one  so  well  acquainted  with  the  question,  or  so  likely 
to  take  it  up  in  a  fair  and  friendly  spirit,  or  who  was  more 
really  sensible  of  the  great  and  increasing  intellectual  de- 
ficiencies of  the  place.  They  seemed  to  think,  and  I  heartily 
agree,  that,  for  many  reasons,  the  subject  would  be  far  better 
in  your  hands  than  in  those  of  Gladstone. 

Excuse  this  exordium,  which  looks  like  flattery,  but  is  not 
meant  so.  The  immediate  occasion  of  my  writing  to  you 
is  as  follows.  Mr.  Horsman  was  intending  to  take  up  the 
matter  and  bring  it  before  the  Ministry,  but  owing  to  the 
representations  of  Lingen,  Stanley,  and  Clough,  who  thought 
that  he  was  going  to  fight  the  battle  (  nee  dis  nee  viribus 
aequis,'  although  not  in  an  unfriendly  spirit,  he  has  been 
induced  to  give  it  up  and  will  now  confine  himself  to  seconding 
Christie's  motion.  What  we  hoped  was  that  you  might  be 
induced  in  good  time  to  take  the  question  out  of  their  hands, 
and  prevent  much  evil  and  gain  for  us  many  things  which 
would  be  a  great  boon. 

Perhaps  I  am  assuming  too  much  in  supposing  that  you 
would  favour  any  movement  to  assist  the  Universities  from 
without.  Let  me  ask  what  chance  is  there  of  reform  from 
within.  It  is  now  twelve  years  since  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
answered  Lord  Eadnor's  question  in  the  House  of  Lords  about 
University  reform,  that  the  Colleges  were  reforming  them- 
selves, and  since  then  I  do  not  think  a  resident  in  the  place 
can  point  to  any  change,  except  perhaps  the  abolition  of  the 
oath  to  the  Statutes,  which  touches  our  real  abuses.  It  is 
nobody's  fault— we  cannot  reform  ourselves.  To  say  nothing 
of  the  stationary  nature  of  the  place— the  close  Fellows  are 
interested  in  keeping  up  close  Fellowships.  Merton  and  All 
Souls  desire  to  hand  down  their  privileges  to  posterity  OVK 
eAacrcrw  17  avrol  TrapeSe^ovro  * — the  true  FiliUS  Aedis  Cllristi  has 
a  theory  ready  to  show  that  the  Christ  Church  method  of 

1  In  no  less  measure  than  they  received  them.     Cf.  Thuc.  i.  71. 


i go  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  vi 

giving  away  Studentships  is  the  sound  and  right  one,  although 
out  of  a  hundred  students  it  is  continually  found  impossible  to 
choose  distinguished  men  to  fill  the  Tutorships. 

These  things  are  so  invidious,  that  although  they  are 
strictly  true  I  am  almost  ashamed  to  state  them.  It  would 
be  great  injustice,  too,  not  to  acknowledge  that  there  are 
a  great  many  persons  in  all  those  societies  who  are  sincerely 
anxious  about  altering  the  present  state  of  things.  Only  what 
fills  me  with  despair  about  these  internal  reforms,  [is  that] 
partly  from  the  want  of  power,  partly,  as  I  think,  from  a  too 
narrow  view  of  duty,  they  involve  some  crotchet  which  mars 
the  practical  good  :  for  example,  a  return  to  some  obsolete 
Statute  which  won't  work  or  which  works  mischievously, 
when  the  consuetudines  of  the  College  would  have  formed 
a  much  better  basis  for  a  useful  reform,  and  so  the  real 
and  crying  evil  remains  untouched. 

There  is  nothing  I  wish  less  than  to  see  Oxford  turned  into 
a  German  or  a  London  University.  On  the  other  hand,  is 
it  at  all  probable  that  we  shall  be  allowed  to  remain  as  we  are 
for  twenty  years  longer,  the  one  solitary,  exclusive,  unnational 
Corporation — our  enormous  wealth  without  any  manifest  utili- 
tarian purpose  ;  a  place,  the  studies  of  which  belong  to  the 
past,  and  unfortunately  seem  to  have  no  power  of  incorporating 
new  branches  of  knowledge  ;  so  exclusive,  that  it  is  scarcely 
capable  of  opening  to  the  wants  of  the  Church  itself ;  and 
again,  the  mere  funds  of  which  considered  as  a  trust  fund 
can  by  no  means  be  said  to  have  been  administered  with 
strict  conscientiousness  for  the  promotion  of  'virtue  and  good 
learning '  ?  And  the  good  done  here,  which  is  certainly  very 
great,  [is]  not  of  a  kind  to  be  paraded  before  the  public,  ov 
Xoyw  TI/ZCO/ACV'  dAAa  777  <rvvov(ria.  irXeov l,  though  we  readily  admit 
it  in  talking  to  one  another  ;  while  the  abuse  and  inefficiency 
is  flagrant. 

You  will  perhaps  excuse,  if  you  do  not  agree  with  me, 
for  writing  all  this.  I  do  not  wish  to  make  a  paper  con- 
stitution for  the  University.  If  Parliament  interferes,  should 

1  '  Honoured,  not  in  story,  but  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  know  it 
best.'— Soph.  Oed.  Col.  62,  3. 


Letters  on  University  Reform,  1846-48    191 

not  the  effort  be  to  limit  the  interference  to  one  or  two  great 
and  simple  points,  such  as  the  opening  of  the  Fellowships 
and  providing  by  an  effectual  system  of  visitation,  and  perhaps 
by  a  declaration  on  the  part  of  the  electors  like  the  Simony 
Oath,  for  their  being  honestly  given  away?  Second,  the 
establishment  of  Professorships  which  might  be  formed  out  of 
extinguished  Fellowships  (which  would,  perhaps,  if  they  were 
thrown  open  be  too  numerous),  and  might  be  attached  as  a  sort 
of  compensation  to  the  Colleges  from  wrhich  the  Fellowships 
are  taken.  To  which,  third,  I  would  add  a  pet  crotchet  of  my 
own,  to  raise  the  value  of  the  Scholarships  (to  make  them  really 
Demyships)  from  the  same  source,— to  provide  the  means  for 
many  more  persons  of  the  middling  class  to  find  their  way 
through  the  University  into  professions. 

I  think  at  present  the  close  Fellowships  work  very  badly, 
especially  in  holding  out  the  prospect  of  a  provision  for  life, 
which  provision  is  generally  not  obtained  until  a  man  is 
twenty-seven  or  twenty-eight,  when  it  would  be  better  for 
him  to  leave  the  University  altogether  and  settle  in  a  parish  : 
to  say  nothing  of  the  evil  of  superannuating  in  Oxford  so  many 
men  who  are  not  fitted  by  nature  for  a  student's  life. 

As  to  the  Professorships,  there  is  not  at  present  a  single  well- 
endowed  one  for  any  of  those  subjects  which  form  the  staple 
of  the  University  course,  except  Theology.  There  is  no 
inducement  for  any  College  Tutor  to  carry  on  his  reading 
of  Aristotle  beyond  the  routine  of  his  lectures,  as  far  as 
prospects  of  this  sort  are  concerned.  Does  not  this  in  some 
measure  account  for  our  not  having  yet  settled  the  province  of 
Logic  ?  Is  it  likely  that  we  can  expect  the  process  of  simply 
converting  Butler  into  Aristotle,  and  Aristotle  into  Butler, 
and  making  them  both  mean  pretty  much  what  we  believed 
before,  can  lead  to  any  permanent  good  ?  The  great  evil  at 
Oxford  is  the  narrowness  and  isolation  of  one  study  from 
another,  and  of  one  part  of  a  study  from  the  other.  We  are 
so  far  below  the  level  of  the  German  Ocean  that  I  fear  one 
day  we  shall  be  utterly  deluged, 

I  must  again  apologize  for  writing  in  this  desultory  manner 
to  you  about  these  matters.  If  you  were  disposed  to  take 
up  the  question  it  would  be  a  great  pleasure  to  Stanley  and 


1 92  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  vi 

myself  to  assist  you  in  every  possible  way,  not  of  course  that 
we  expect  you  to  agree  in  our  suggestions. 

Believe  me,  my  dear  Palmer, 
Yours  very  truly, 

B.  JOWETT. 

Note  ~by  Lord  Selborne. 

[N.B. — My  answer  to  this  letter,  declining  to  undertake  the 
question  as  suggested,  was  mainly  grounded  upon  the  im- 
pediment arising  out  of  the  oaths  which  I  had  taken  on 
my  election  to  my  Fellowship  at  Magdalen.  On  this  subject 
there  is  in  print  a  letter,  which  I  addressed  in  1853  or  1854 
to  a  Fellow  of  Magdalen. — R.  P.] 

To  E.  E.  W.  LINGEN. 

BALLIOL,  December  3,  1847. 

.  .  .  Last  Saturday  E.  Palmer  came  down  here  to  talk  over 
University  reform.  He  was  liberal  as  one  could  wish,  but  has 
some  difficulty  in  stirring  about  the  matter  himself  from  the 
oath  he  has  taken  at  Magdalen — he  does  not  consider  the  oath 
binding  himself,  but  as  the  terms  of  it  are  very  explicit  he 
dislikes  the  scandal  it  would  make.  This  I  mention  in  confi- 
dence. He  is  quite  willing  however  to  present  a  petition  for 
open  Fellowships  and  Professorships,  and  to  speak  in  its  favour. 
He  is  not  sanguine  at  present,  and  thinks  with  you  that  enough 
has  not  been  done  to  bring  the  matter  before  the  public :  our 
best  chance,  he  said,  would  be  to  get  the  ear  of  some  one  of  the 
Ministers,  especially  if  Campbell's1  father2  were  made  Lord 
Chancellor,  which  is  a  possible  event. 

To  E.  E.  W.  LINGEN. 

OXFORD,  February  20,  1848. 

.  .  .  We  are  getting  up  a  petition  to  the  Heads  from  Tutors 
of  Colleges  in  favour  of  Jeune's  scheme  or  something  like 
it.  The  main  objects  are  three :  (a)  to  get  the  '  Little  Go '  placed 

1  W.  F.  Campbell,  afterwards  2  Lord  Campbell,  made  Chan- 
Lord  Stratheden.  cellor  in  1850. 


Letters  on  University  Reform,  1846-48     193 

so  early  as  to  stand  in  the  place  of  a  University  Matriculation  ; 
(/?)  to  extend  the  studies  of  the  place  so  as  to  give  passmen 
something  as  well  as  Latin  and  Greek  which  may  interest 
them  ;  (y)  to  place  the  present  '  Great  Go '  at  the  end  of  two 
years,  somewhat  contracting  the  number  of  books,  and  allowing 
the  third  year  [of  residence]  for  separate  studies,  as  Theology, 
Mathematics  and  Physics,  History  and  Law.  I  do  not  expect 
that  nearly  all  this  will  be  gained,  nor  see  how  the  University 
could  be  carried  on  if  it  were  at  present,  but  something  useful 
will  probably  come  of  it. 

...  I  have  not  heard  anything  about  the  Price 1  schemes  ; 
I  quite  admit  that  the  plan  mentioned  above  does  alter  the 
character  of  the  place,  but  not  objectionably.  At  present  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  passmen  it  is  little  more  than  a  place 
of  brute  discipline,  where  they  may  be  drawn  out  by  their 
companions  and  amusements,  but  certainly  not  by  polite 
literature.  The  chief  fear  is  lest  we  fritter  ourselves  among 
too  many  things. 

To  E.  E.  W.  LINGEN. 

OXFORD,  April  3,  1848. 

I  send  herewith  a  pamphlet 2  which  is  a  joint  production  of 
Stanley's  and  mine.  As  there  is  a  good  deal  of  talk  about 
these  things  at  present,  it  may  perhaps  survive  into  the  next 
Term,  and  reappear  in  an  enlarged  edition.  Will  you  look 
through  the  scheme  carefully  and  see  if  you  can  suggest  amend- 
ments and  alterations  ? 

I  am  going  to  attack  you  about  another  scheme,  which  as  far 
as  I  can  see  at  present  I  shall  pursue  tooth  and  nail.  It  is  the 
formation  of  an  association  to  give  a  course  of  lectures  in  the 
Schools  on  all  principal  subjects  connected  with  our  present 
examinations.  Stanley  would  lecture  on  Herodotus  and  early 
Greek  history,  Clough  on  Livy,  myself  on  the  history  of  the 
Greek  Philosophy.  We  hope  that  Scott  and  Vaughan  would 
be  induced  to  give  lectures  in  Scholarship  and  Moral  Philosophy 
respectively,  also  G[oldwin]  Smith. 

1  Bonamy  Price.  2  See  above,  p.  174. 

VOL.  I.  O 


194  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett 

Now  here  lies  the  point :  do  you  think  you  can  assist  us, 
by  giving,  say,  twelve  lectures  in  a  year  on  some  philological 
or  general  subject,  something  which  might  be  the  re'Aos1  of 
all  your  dilettante  work  during  the  year?  Latin  literature 
or  Homer  or  Aeschylus  would  upon  the  whole  be  the  most 
useful.  I  mean  something  of  this  kind,  in  which  the 
University  has  been  always  weak. 

The  first  step  we  propose  is  to  request  the  sanction  of  the 
V.-C.  (not  the  permission)  for  the  use  of  the  Schools,  to  which 
as  Masters  we  have  a  right — this  memorial  to  be  signed  by 
all  those  who  are  going  to  take  a  part  in  the  plan.  A  fee  of 
a  pound  to  be  required  from  every  one  who  attends. 

The  great  object  as  you  will  see  would  be  to  form  a  nucleus 
for  a  Professorial  system,  to  give  a  better  standard  of  lectures, 
also  to  construct  a  little  from  within  in  expectation  of  changes 
from  without. 

Well !  the  Deluge  has  come  in  our  time.  I  think  of  going 
to  Paris  at  the  end  of  the  week 2,  and  shall  call  at  the  Privy 
Council  Office  to  see  you,  as  I  come  through  on  Friday. 

To  E.  E.  W.  LINGEN. 

BALLIOL,  November  17,  1848. 

.  .  .  The  reform  of  the  Examination  Statute  progresses 
very  badly.  The  second  examination  is  to  be  in  'words,'  in 
the  third  men  are  to  give  up  words  altogether  and  return 
to  things.  This  is  the  final  form  in  which  the  Statute  is  to  be 
proposed,  nothing  but  Philology  to  the  end  of  the  second  year 
— and  no  Philology  afterwards.  It  would  be  surely  better  to 
keep  our  present  system  to  the  end  of  the  second  year  and  then 
commence  separate  studies  not  excluding  Philology.  Love  to 
Temple. 

1  '  End  and  aim.1  2  p.  133. 


CHAPTER  VII 

TUTORIAL  AND   OTHER   INTERESTS.       1850-1854 

(Aet.  33-36) 

WIDENING  social  horizon — Bunsen— Sir  C.  Trevelyan — Tennyson — 
Tutorial  methods — Vacations — Mr.  W.  L.  Newman's  reminiscences. 

AS  we  turn  from  these  public  activities  to  resume  the 
-"-  tenor  of  his  life  in  Oxford,  we  may  take  occasion 
to  observe  the  expansion  of  Jowett's  social  interests, 
which  were  scarcely  ever  separated  from  his  educational 
and  other  labours.  His  pupils  of  some  years  back  were 
about  to  enter  public  life  :  his  friends  and  colleagues 
were  rising  to  positions  where  they  could  help  him  in 
pushing  the  fortunes  of  younger  men.  Lingen  became 
Head  of  the  Education  Department  in  1849,  and  in 
appointing  Examiners  and  Inspectors  relied  on  Jowett's 
recommendation  more  than  on  that  of  any  other  of  the 
Oxford  Tutors l.  C.  J.  Vaughan,  Stanley's  brother-in- 
law,  was  Head  Master  of  Harrow,  and  Balliol  men 
became  assistant  masters  there.  Temple,  in  whose  con- 
versation Jowett  delighted  more  than  in  that  of  any 
other  man,  had  gone  to  be  the  Head  of  a  training 
college  for  workhouse  school  teachers,  which  had  been 
recently  founded  at  Kneller  Hall  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Twickenham ;  and  in  1858  succeeded  Goulburn  at 
Rugby.  At  Jowett's  recommendation,  Temple  took 
Palgrave  to  be  his  lieutenant  at  Kneller  Hall.  Morier, 

1  W.  H.  Thompson  of  Trinity  was  similarly  Lingen's  mainstay  at 
Cambridge. 

O   2 


196  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  vn 

after  spending  the  years  1851  and  1852  at  the  Educa- 
tion Office,  became  attached  to  the  Diplomatic  service 
at  Vienna  and  afterwards  at  Berlin. 

Through  Stanley  Jowett  was  introduced  to  the  Chevalier 
Bunsen — Baron  Bunsen — who  spoke  of  him  to  his  son 
Henry  as  the  deepest  mind  he  had  met  with  in  England. 
Henry  de  Bunsen's  own  impression  of  him,  as  he  told  me 
afterwards,  was  that  of  a  man  who  lived  intimately  with 
a  few  friends,  but  was  shy  and  retiring  in  general  society. 

"William  Young  Sellar  had  gone  to  assist  his  old 
teacher,  Professor  William  Ramsay,  in  Glasgow,  and 
there  became  engaged  to  Miss  Eleanor  Dennistoun,  whom 
he  married  in  1852.  That  home  was  thenceforward  a 
centre  of  growing  interest  for  Jowett. 

Lingen,  too,  had  married  Miss  Hutton  in  1852,  and  they 
often  received  him  at  their  house  in  Gloucester  Place, 
Hyde  Park.  Mrs.  Lingen l  was  greatly  struck  by  the  '  joy- 
ousness '  of  her  husband's  friend.  He  used  to  rally  her 
on  the  strictness  of  her  Politico-Economical  principles, 
with  which,  at  that  time,  he  agreed.  They  took  him  to 
a  theatre,  where  the  after-piece  turned  on  disputes  between 
husband  and  wife.  At  this  he  laughed  heartily,  not,  as 
Mrs.  Lingen  thought,  without  a  spice  of  side-long  malice. 

Lord  Lingen  writes  (1895)  :— 

'  He  has  left  on  me  the  impression  of  being  in  those  years 
lighthearted  and  gay :  and  this  impression  agrees  with  the 
earliest  portrait  of  him,  that  by  Kichmond,  to  which,  let  me 
add,  his  likeness  after  death  returned  with  striking  reality. 
I  was  constantly  seeing  him  during  those  years,  and  we  talked 
unreservedly  about  everything,  being  orthodox  and  rather  ad- 
vanced Liberals  of  the  time  both  in  Church  and  State — such 
as  Oxford  Toryism  had  made  us.  His  visits,  generally  un- 
announced, are  among  the  pleasantest  recollections  of  my  life. 
Punctual  as  he  was  to  the  last  in  business  and  duty,  there 

1  Lady  Lingen. 


i85o-i854]     Acquaintance  with  Tennyson  197 

was  a  humorous  irregularity  about  his  social  observance  of 
hours.  I  shall  never  forget  our  frequent  anxieties,  in  which 
he  never  shared,  whether  he  would  really  catch  the  ten  o'clock 
train  to  Oxford,  on  which  he  was  bent,  with  his  breakfast  to 
finish,  and  our  servant  packing  his  things.  Then,  as  up  to 
the  end  of  his  life,  he  always  carried  with  him  papers  which 
he  had  in  hand,  and  would  work  at  them  upstairs  and  down, 
and  at  all  spare  times.' 

The  question  of  competitive  examinations  for  India 
led  to  an  intimacy  with  Sir  Charles  Trevelyan  and  his 
family,  including  the  present  Lady  Knutsford  and  Mrs. 
Dugdale.  At  their  house  he  had  opportunities  of  per- 
sonal intercourse  with  Macaulay.  Sir  George  Trevelyan 
says,  '  I  remember  a  period  of  one  or  two  years,  when 
the  question  of  Civil  Service  reform  was  at  its  height, 
during  which  Mr.  Jowett  constantly  came  to  us  at 
"Westbourne  Terrace,  and  used  to  sit  through  the  evening, 
as  my  boyish  recollection  goes,  quite  silent.' 

At  Harrow  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mrs.  Vaughan's 
cousin  Rosalind  Stanley,  now  Lady  Carlisle,  then  a  child 
of  eleven,  who  rated  him  soundly— much  to  his  delight — 
for  not  having  read  the  Arabian  Nights,  and  commanded 
him  to  do  so  without  delay l.  And  he  had  many  a 
friendly  battle  on  theological  subjects  with  Mrs.  Vaughan 
— Catherine  Stanley — his  fellow-traveller  of  1845. 

Meanwhile  he  kept  up  his  correspondence  with  still 
older  friends.  He  writes  to  James  Lonsdale,  who  had 
lost  his  mother : — 

'No  one  who  had  known  ever  so  little  of  her  could  help 
seeing  that  she  was  just  one  of  those  persons  who  spread 
light  and  peace  over  their  homes.  Stanley  has  several  times 
mentioned  her  to  me  as  what  he  termed  .  .  .  one  of  his  three 
pattern  ladies :  .  .  .  her  grace  and  goodness  were  admired  by 
others  as  much  as  they  were  appreciated  by  her  own  children.' 


Mrs.  Vaughan  is  my  authority  for  this. — L.  C. 


198  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  vn 

Jowett's  intercourse  with  Tennyson,  which  like 
a  golden  thread  ran  through  the  whole  of  his  remaining 
years,  began  in  the  following  way.  In  1852  Tennyson 
resided  at  Twickenham ;  where  both  Temple  and  Pal- 
grave,  then  at  Kneller  Hall,  saw  much  of  him.  When 
Jowett  visited  his  two  friends,  they  invited  Tennyson  to 
meet  him.  He  came,  and  the  poet  and  'philosopher'  were 
charmed  with  each  other.  After  settling  at  Farringford, 
the  Tennysons  invited  Jowett  to  stay  with  them.  When 
the  invitation  had  gone  forth,  Tennyson  humorously 
confessed  to  Palgrave  his  apprehensions  at  the  thought 
of  entertaining  a  cleric  and  a  don,  but  was  assured  that 
Jowett  was,  after  all,  a  human  being.  Mrs.  Tennyson  was 
delighted  with  her  guest's  discourse  upon  high  subjects, 
such  as  the  freedom  of  the  will1. 

It  may  be  mentioned  in  passing  that  Jowett  examined 
more  than  once  at  Durham  University,  where  James 
Lonsdale  was  one  of  the  Tutors  for  a  time. 

Men  have  been  known  to  rise  to  high  places  in  Church 
and  State  by  taking  advantage  of  such  opportunities 
as  now  opened  for  Jowett  in  the  great  world, 
to  the  neglect  of  more  immediate  duties.  That  was 
not  Jowett's  way.  The  Balliol  Tutorship  was  still 
his  main  employment,  and  he  laboured  in  it  as  if 
it  were  the  sole  purpose  of  his  life ;  turning  all 
other  interests  to  account  in  ennobling  and  enriching 
this.  It  might  without  exaggeration  be  said  of  him  in 
relation  to  his  pupils,  that  '  all  things  were  for  their 
sakes.'  With  each  new  batch  of  undergraduates  there 
came  an  accession  to  those  living  influences,  whose 
fountain  seemed  inexhaustible  and  which  flowed  onward 

1  Grant,  also,  and  William  Grant's  connexion  with  Mr.  Cotton 
Sellar,  soon  became  frequent  of  Afton,  Tennyson's  neighbour  at 
guests  at  Farringford,  through  Freshwater. 


1850-1854]  Tutorial  Methods  199 

throughout  the  remainder  of  his  career.  The  freshmen 
used  to  be  assigned  to  the  care  of  the  several  Tutors  by 
some  arrangement  of  a  College  meeting ;  but  those 
whose  promise  and  aspiration  were  above  the  average, 
if  they  had  not  the  good  fortune  to  be  Jowett's  pupils, 
were  only  too  glad  to  avail  themselves  of  the  permission 
which  he  readily  gave  them,  to  bring  essays  or  pieces  of 
composition  to  his  room,  in  addition  to  the  regular  work 
with  their  Tutor.  He  treated  them,  in  such  cases,  as  if  they 
were  really  his  pupils,  and  the  work  done  for  him  was 
entered  into  with  greater  eagerness  and  delight  than 
the  ordinary  College  exercises.  It  was  not  that  he  spent 
more  pains  in  looking  over  such  attempts  than  other 
Tutors  did ;  his  remarks  were  brief,  and  he  seldom  rewrote 
a  sentence,  but,  somehow,  his  merely  saying  of  a  copy  of 
iambics,  '  That  is  not  so  Greek  as  the  last  you  did,'  had  the 
effect  of  sending  one  off  upon  a  quest  of  higher  excellence, 
the  craving  for  which  was  not  to  be  satisfied  at  once x. 
He  seized  upon  what  was  best  in  one's  attempts,  and 
showed  a  way  in  which  the  whole  might  have  been  better. 
He  managed  always  to  direct  the  study  of  language 
so  as  to  promote  literary  culture.  The  pieces  set  by 
him  for  composition  were  choice  specimens  of  classical 
English,  which  prompted  higher  efforts,  and  led  to 
a  closer  intimacy  with  great  writers,  than  such  passages  as 
used  often  to  be  prescribed.  And  he  impressed  upon  his 
pupils  an  idea  which  was  new  to  most  of  them,  that  in 
translating  from  Greek  or  Latin  classics  into  English, 
as  much  of  time  and  labour  might  be  usefully  spent 
as  in  turning  an  English  passage  into  Latin  or  Greek. 

1  A  contrary  instance   should  verses.     He  glanced   over   them 

perhaps    be    quoted.     Somewhat  and,  looking  up  rather  blankly, 

earlier  than  this  a  Scholar  of  the  said,   '  Have  you    any  taste   for 

College  brought  him  a  setof  Greek  mathematics  ? ' 


200 


Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  vn 


His  criticism  in  those  days  stimulated  without  dis- 
couraging. In  setting  before  the  mind  a  lofty  ideal, 
he  implied  a  belief  in  powers  hereafter  to  be  developed, 
and  the  belief  seemed  to  create  the  thing  believed  in. 
But  the  intellectual  stimulus  was  not  all.  He  seemed 
to  divine  one's  spiritual  needs,  and  by  mere  contact 
and  the  brightness  of  his  presence,  to  supply  them.  If 
he  was  ready  to  repress  conceit,  he  was  no  less  ready  to 
bestow  encouragement  on  the  diffident,  and  sympathy 
upon  the  depressed ;  not  without  timely  warning,  when 
he  saw  that  danger  or  temptation  was  at  hand.  His 
intimate  knowledge  of  his  former  pupils'  lives  was 
applied  to  heal  the  errors  of  their  successors,  and  his 
own  experience  of  early  struggles  also  had  its  effect.  He 
ignored  trifles,  but  never  let  pass  any  critical  point. 

The  mornings  were  of  course  spent  in  the  Lecture 
Room.  This  was  the  larger  of  the  two  rooms  in  the 
Fisher  Building  which  he  then  occupied.  The  lecture 
list,  like  the  choice  of  Tutors  for  the  men,  was  a  matter 
of  College  arrangement.  The  subjects  were  distributed 
amongst  the  Tutors  and  Lecturers,  the  division  of 
labour  being,  however,  less  minute  than  it  became  after- 
wards ;  and  attendance  on  the  prescribed  lectures  was 
supposed  to  be  compulsory. 

Although  Jowett  had  made  his  early  reputation  by 
Latin  scholarship,  it  has  been  observed  that  he  seldom 
if  ever  lectured  on  a  Latin  subject.  His  favourites  were 
Sophocles,  Aristophanes,  Thucydides,  and  the  Republic 
of  Plato.  There  was  no  listlessness  at  any  of  his  lectures, 
and  often  one  man  would  remain  after  the  rest  to  discuss 
a  difficulty.  If  there  was  less  of  exact  scholarship 
imparted  by  him,  than,  for  example,  by  James  Riddell, 
the  whole  subject  was  surrounded  with  an  air  of  literary 
grace  and  charm  which  had  a  more  educative  effect.  As 


1850-1854]  College  Discipline  201 

an  interpreter,  and  above  all  as  a  translator,  he  seemed 
to  his  pupils  to  be  unrivalled.  He  was  never  satisfied 
with  any  interpretation  that  could  not  be  expressed  in 
perfect  English.  There  were  also  Divinity  Lectures  on 
the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  and  the  History  of  Philosophy 
Lectures  already  referred  to ;  also  a  Logic  Lecture  (for 
Moderations)  in  the  Hall  of  the  College,  of  which 
Aldrich's  Logic  was  still  the  text-book,  though  we  were 
expected  to  read  Whately  too  ;  but  the  commentary 
was  diversified  with  many  suggestive  remarks  and  illus- 
trations, especially  on  the  subject  of  fallacies.  Jowett 
would  suddenly  ask  for  a  quotation  from  English  poetry, 
which,  if  given,  he  would  make  the  pupils  analyze,  and 
recast  in  logical  form.  It  was  a  sort  of  conversational 
lecture.  Besides  all  these,  he  now  and  then  gave 
a  special  course  on  Political  Economy  to  a  few 
volunteers,  and  at  one  time  held  a  very  useful  com- 
position lecture  for  half  an  hour  between  morning  Chapel 
and  breakfast-time,  in  which  men  were  expected  to  turn 
a  piece  of  classical  English,  taken  down  from  dictation, 
extemporaneously  and  viva  voce  into  Greek  or  Latin. 
He  would  read  out  a  passage,  sentence  by  sentence, 
inviting  first  one  and  then  another  to  improvise  a  version 
in  Greek  or  Latin,  welcoming  any  improvement  of  that 
version  from  other  members  of  the  class,  and  settling 
the  ultimate  form  by  general  consent. 

"When  it  came  to  Jowett's  turn  to  be  Dean,  some 
men  looked  for  a  slack  regime  in  regard  to  morning 
Chapel,  as  Jowett  himself,  being  a  sound  sleeper,  and 
studying  late  at  night,  was  not  always  regular  in  his 
attendance.  They  soon  discovered  their  mistake  ;  every 
defaulter  was  immediately  sent  for,  and  instead  of  being 
admonished  for  his  failure  in  religious  observance,  was 
told  that  morning  Chapel  was  a  rule  of  the  College.  In 


202  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  vn 

case  of  continued  delinquency,  an  imposition  was  in- 
flicted and  inexorably  required.  The  Warden  of  Merton 
(the  Honourable  G.  C.  Brodrick)  says : — 

'  One  morning  several  of  us,  including  Jowett  himself,  were 
just  too  late  and  found  the  door  closed.  Nevertheless  he  sent 
for  the  absentees  as  usual  and  anticipated  the  allusion  to 
his  own  misfortune  which  I  was  on  the  point  of  making,  by 
asking  shortly,  "  Why  were  you  not  in  Chapel,  Mr.  Brodrick?  " 
and  adding  in  the  same  breath,  '  It's  no  use  saying  that  I  was 
late  too,  for  it  was  very  wrong  in  both  of  us. " ' 

No  business  of  this  kind  really  affected  his  relation 
to  his  pupils.  If  his  anger  ever  showed  itself,  it  was 
momentary,  and  left  no  trace  on  after  intercourse. 

In  special  cases  he  was  lavish  of  his  time  and  energy, 
already,  it  might  be  thought,  only  too  fully  occupied. 
If  a  promising  but  unequal  scholar  seemed  to  him  to 
have  a  chance  for  the  Ireland,  he  would  say, '  Bring  me 
a  piece  of  composition  every  evening  till  the  examina- 
tion.' The  evenings  after  Hall  were  given  up  to 
interviews  of  this  nature;  the  afternoons  were  often 
spent  in  walks  with  undergraduates.  His  summer 
reading-parties  had  made  for  him  a  little  nucleus  of 
friends  in  College,  to  whom  the  extension  of  his  influence 
was  largely  due. 

The  Warden  of  Merton,  who  was  an  undergraduate  at 
this  time,  has  made  some  valuable  remarks  which  include 
the  period  now  under  review : — 

'  In  my  opinion  Jowett's  heroic  industiy,  during  his  Tutorial 
career,  has  never  been  fully  appreciated.  At  almost  all  hours 
of  the  day,  and  up  to  a  very  late  hour  at  night,  his  door  was 
always  open  to  every  man  in  the  College  seeking  help,  and, 
though  I  was  never  among  his  chosen  disciples,  I  continued 
after  taking  my  degree  to  bring  him  answers  to  questions 
at  my  own  request,  which  he  looked  over  and  criticized  as 
carefully  as  ever.  No  other  Tutor  within  my  experience  has 


1850-1854]  Shyness  and  Reserve  203 

ever  approached  him  in  the  depth  and  extent  of  his  pastoral 
supervision,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  of  young  thinkers  ;  and  it 
may  truly  be  said  that  in  his  pupil-room,  thirty,  forty,  and 
fifty  years  ago,  were  disciplined  many  of  the  minds  which  are 
now  exercising  a  wide  influence  over  the  nation.' 

Even  amongst  the  Balliol  undergraduates,  however, 
Jowett  was  not  universally  popular.  He  had  no  false 
dignity,  but  he  had  an  adequate  sense  of  his  position *, 
and  his  native  shyness  had  not  worn  off.  His  long 
silences  were  felt  as  an  awkward  bar  to  conversation 
by  those  who  did  not  understand  that  he  himself  was 
hardly  aware  of  them,  as  the  intervals  were  filled  with 
active  thought.  He  was  apt  to  disclaim  this  when  taxed 
with  it,  and  to  declare  that  he  was  thinking  of  nothing  2, 
but  the  fact  was  often  proved  by  the  pregnancy  of  the 
few  words  that  followed  the  silence.  It  seemed  as  if  the 
thought  had  to  make  a  long  circuit  through  his  capacious 
brain  before  the  result,  brief,  terse,  and  pointed,  was  evolved  3. 

To  interrupt  this  silent  process  by  starting  a  fresh 
topic  was  often  to  provoke  a  snub.  This  was  partly  due, 
as  a  friend  remarks,  '  to  his  absorption  in  his  work,  but 
also  to  a  natural  shyness  and  aversion  to  the  commonplaces 
of  society.  As  he  never  made  an  unmeaning  remark  him- 
self, he  was  impatient  of  unmeaning  remarks  from  others/ 

In  an  early  letter  to  Stanley  he  speaks  of  the 
'  idiosyncrasy '  which  led  to  these  awkward  silences  : — 

'Cromer  is  such  an  immense  distance  that  it  rather  appals 

1  He  was  said  to  have  rebuked  was  so  perfectly  expressed  as  to 
Riddell   for  being    too    familiar  seem  final.     This  made  the  give 
with  the  undergraduates.  and  take  of  conversation  difficult. 

2  Life  of  J.  A.  Symonds,  vol.  i.  He  seemed  to  be  holding  up  an 
p.  227.  ideal,  but  one  could  not  breathe 

3  A  shrewd  observer  remarked  freely  in  that  high  air.     It  was 
long  afterwards  on  his  conversa-  true  elevation  however,  and  not 
tion  at  high  table :   '  Everything  the  donnishness  of  an  academi- 
he  said  had  an  edge  on  it ;  and  cal  poseur.' 


204  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  vn 

me,  but  to  say  the  truth,  I  would  go  there  after  your  kind 
letter,  were  it  not  for  some  idiosyncrasy  that  makes  me,  at 
times,  very  unwilling  to  be  among  strangers,  which  it  would 
probably  involve.  I  hardly  like  to  mention  it :  it  looks  so 
like  affectation.  But  somehow  or  other  I  get  thinking  about 
matters  speculative  or  otherwise,  and,  when  not  perfectly  well, 
they  get  such  a  hold  that  I  cannot  relax,  and  one  becomes  a 
sort  of  iStwr^s,  wrapped  in  selfish  care  and  out  of  tune  with 
ordinary  life.' 

Another  thing  that  somewhat  hampered  his  intercourse 
with  younger  men  was  his  fastidiousness  on  the  score  of 
language,  which  he  regarded  almost  as  a  sacred  thing, 
making  it  part  of  his  vocation  to  impress  this  feeling  upon 
others.  Hence  the  abhorrence  of  slang,  which  some  under- 
graduates thought  a  piece  of  donnishness.  With  one  of 
his  child-friends  in  the  country  he  took  a  singular  way 
of  enforcing  this  lesson.  He  insisted  on  giving  her 
a  shilling  every  time  she  used  the  word  '  awfully,'  and  so 
shamed  her  out  of  the  habit. 

He  never  flinched  from  acts  of  necessary  discipline, 
although,  when  anything  severe  was  done,  his  intimate 
friends  knew  well  how  his  heart  bled  for  the  youth  whose 
prospects  were  affected.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  in- 
directly known  that  he  had  stoutly  resisted  what  appeared 
to  him  unnecessary  harshness,  and  some  of  his  chief 
friends,  as  Mr.  "W.  L.  Newman  observes,  were  amongst  the 
'  unsteady  ones '  whose  lives  he  was  insensibly  guiding. 
One  who  appears  to  speak  with  feeling  writes :  '  Though 
he  did  not  spare  you  in  private,  he  stood  between  you  and 
harm  in  public.  He  would  send  for  you,  and  you  found 
him  sitting,  poker  in  hand,  before  his  fire.  It  would 
be  many  minutes  sometimes  before  he  would  speak, 
but  when  he  did  speak,  it  was  to  the  purpose.' 

His  appearance  at  this  time  was  still  very  youthful, 
but  at  moments,  at  least  to  younger  men,  his  personality 


1850-1854]    Personal  Appearance — Influence        205 

was  very  impressive.  The  look  of  great  refinement, 
yet  of  manly  strength,  of  subtlety,  combined  with 
simplicity ;  his  unaffected  candour,  tempered  with  reserve, 
could  not  fail  to  attract  even  when  it  baffled  observa- 
tion. His  soft  wavy  locks  were  already  touched  with 
grey,  beginning  to  recede  from  the  temples,  so  as  to 
make  more  prominent  the  expansive  brow,  in  which 
phrenologists  would  say  that  'idealism'  was  balanced 
with  'comparison'  and  ( causality.'  His  full  grey  eyes 
spoke  of  the  clearness  of  the  mind  within,  yet  had 
a  dreamy  wistful  look,  sometimes  increased  by  a  slight 
twitching  of  the  eyelid.  His  mouth  in  repose  appeared 
full  and  slack,  but  the  expressive  lips  were  under  absolute 
control.  He  was  always  clean-shaven  except  the  scanty 
whiskers,  and  the  small  chin  seemed  hardly  to  promise 
the  strength  of  volition  which  lay  concealed  within. 
The  effect  of  his  sloping  shoulders  was  rather  enhanced 
by  the  black  dress  coat  of  fine  broad  cloth  which  he 
always  wore.  His  waistcoat  disclosed  a  faultless  shirt- 
front  and  white  neckerchief  loosely  tied  about  the 
upright  collar,  which  he  continued  to  wear  long  after 
it  ceased  to  be  the  fashion.  He  never  wore  a  great- 
coat before  1859,  when  he  purchased  one  of  roughish 
cloth  for  travelling  purposes,  described  by  J.  A.  Symoiids 
as  '  a  barrel-bodied  great-coat.'  In  walking  about  Oxford, 
if  the  cold  happened  to  be  extreme,  he  would  propose  to 
his  companion  to  run  for  warmth.  He  seldom  wore 
gloves,  but  when  he  did  so  they  were  of  cloth,  not  kid. 
His  hands  seemed  the  only  parts  of  him  that  were 
sensitive  to  cold.  When  cap  and  gown  were  discarded 
he  wore  a  soft  wideawake,  which  he  called  his  '  cap.' 
In  writing,  if  there  was  no  chair  at  hand,  he  would  kneel 
at  a  table.  Those  who  knew  him  only  in  late  years, 
would  have  been  surprised  to  see  his  slight  figure  racing 


206  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  vn 

about  the  Balliol  quadrangle,  or  to  hear  him,  as  he 
often  did,  hum  or  whistle,  as  he  came  back  to  his 
room,  some  broken  phrases  of  a  familiar  melody. 

He  had  still  some  lessons  to  learn  in  the  management 
of  men ;  and  his  advice  to  other  Tutors  at  a  somewhat 
later  time  probably  reflects  his  own  early  experience: 
'  Young  men  are  so  sensitive.  You  will  find  one  burning 
with  indignation  for  some  neglect  of  which  you  were 
profoundly  unconscious.  It  will  not  do  to  speak  roughly 
to  them.'  Yet  it  was  often  observed  how  as  with  a  silken 
thread  he  put  a  check  on  those  whom  others  found 
unmanageable.  The  frankness  of  his  dealings  with  them, 
even  when  they  had  left  College,  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  which  is  too 
intimate  to  be  quoted  at  length : — 

'  There  are  many  things  which  must  give  you,  as  all  of  us, 
pain  in  your  past  life.  In  your  case  they  come  rather  under 
the  head  of  weaknesses  than  of  faults.  You  are  now  a  man, 
so  must  put  away  childish  things.  .  .  .  God  has  blessed  you 
hitherto  in  your  Oxford  course,  but  you  have  been  wanting  to 
yourself.  You  have  many  friends  looking  on,  and  hoping  that 
you  will  not  allow  egotism,  or  any  mental  or  bodily  weakness,  to 
get  the  better  of  you.  Forgive  me  for  mentioning  these  things.' 

This  is  a  specimen  of  what  some  used  to  call '  a  paternal 
from  Jowett.' 

A  peculiarity  which  impressed  many  undergraduates 
was  the  beauty  of  his  delivery,  especially  in  reading 
Scripture.  Mr.  Isambard  Brunei,  who  came  to  Balliol 
in  the  fifties,  says  that  he  and  others  used  to  make 
an  effort  to  go  to  morning  Chapel  when  it  was  known 
that  Jowett  was  likely  to  read  the  Epistle  and  Gospel. 
Though  rather  high-pitched,  his  voice  in  reading  had 
a  richness  in  its  tones,  as  of  a  silver  bell,  which  charmed 
the  ear;  and  the  absence  of  mannerism,  the  sincerity 


1850-1854]         Sermons  and  Addresses  207 

and  reverence  of  the  expression,  and  the  perfect  rendering 
of  every  shade  of  meaning,  without  undue  emphasis, 
made  an  entireness  of  effect  unlike  anything  that  could 
be  heard  elsewhere.  Poor  young  D'Arcy1,  a  scholar  of 
genius,  and  of  a  deeply  religious  turn,  remarked  to  me 
after  one  Communion,  how  devoutly,  in  administering 
it,  Jowett  had  said  the  sacred  words.  There  were  no 
sermons  then  in  Balliol  Chapel,  the  institution  of  the 
Catechetical  Lecture  having  taken  their  place.  But 
during  the  week  before  Communion,  it  was  the  practice 
for  each  of  the  Tutors  to  give  a  short  discourse  to  his 
pupils.  Jowett's  addresses  were  much  valued  by  those 
who  heard  them.  "When  they  had  assembled  quietly  in 
the  Lecture  Room,  he  would  come  out  of  his  inner  room, 
with  the  ink  still  wet  upon  the  notepaper,  and  read 
what  he  had  prepared.  Two  subjects  are  especially 
remembered  :  '  Rejoice,  0  young  man,  in  thy  youth,'  and 
'Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous/  In  one  he 
spoke  plainly  of  the  temptations  to  which  young  men 
were  liable  at  College ;  '  All  this,'  he  said,  '  because 
young  men  are  weak.'  In  another  address  he  made 
some  subtle  remarks  on  social  difficulties,  observing  that 
the  secret  of  true  influence  was  not  conscious  effort, 
'  nor  sympathy,  which  may  be  weakness,  but  a  consistent 
life.'  In  the  sermon  on  death  he  dwelt  on  a  favourite 
topic,  of  which  he  had  lately  been  reminded  by  con- 
versations with  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie,  the  great  surgeon, 
that  the  current  notions  about  death-bed  scenes  were 
an  illusion,  and  that  the  desire  of  life  often  failed  with 
life  itself2.  One  sentence  in  that  sermon  still  remains 

1  He  died  in  his  second  year  at  sion  which  he  took  from  converse 
College.  with  Sir  Benjamin  was  that  '  the 

2  See  Brodie's  Psychological  In-  force  of  specifics  can  go  only  a 
quiries  (1855).    Another  impres-  little  way.' 


208  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  vn 

with,  me :  '  God  will  not  judge  of  men  by  what  they 
know ;  yet  to  have  used  knowledge  rightly  will  be 
a  staff  to  support  and  comfort  us  in  passing  through  the 
dark  valley.' 

Jowett's  voice  as  a  preacher  was  so  long  silent  in 
Oxford,  that  there  is  a  special  interest  in  recalling 
the  few  occasions  on  which  he  is  known  to  have 
occupied  the  University  pulpit.  Besides  the  Assize 
Sermon  in  the  autumn  of  1849,  there  were  some  which 
he  delivered  as  Select  Preacher  in  1850-51.  Of  one 
of  these  he  writes  to  ffolliott,  October,  1851  :  'My  sermon 
was  greatly  admired— by  the  wooden  benches,  who  found 
something  in  it  exactly  adapted  to  the  ecclesiastical 
position  which  they  had  taken  up.  It  was  an  animating 
sight  to  see  them ;  they  echoed  every  word  that  was 
said.'  But  there  are  some  who  still  remember  an  im- 
pressive discourse  on  the  text,  '  The  hairs  of  your  head 
are  all  numbered/  treating  of  the  Reign  of  Law ;  and 
Mr.  Gladstone,  in  a  recent  letter  to  P.  Lyttelton  Gell, 
spoke  of  a  discourse  which  he  had  heard  from  Jowett 
about  this  time,  on  the  contrast  between  faith  and 
experience,  as  '  epoch-making.' 

The  small  hours  were  given,  when  not  demanded  by 
special  calls  upon  his  attention  or  sympathy,  to  the 
systematic  study  of  St.  Paul. 

Stanley's  departure  from  Oxford  in  1850,  and  his 
appointment  to  a  Canonry  of  Canterbury  in  1851,  were 
events  of  trying  significance  for  his  chief  Oxford  friend. 
Their  paths  in  life  were  sundering  ;  they  could  no  longer 
work  at  the  New  Testament  together1,  and  the  dream 
of  a  visit  to  the  Holy  Land  could  only  be  fulfilled  for 
one  of  them.  The  Homeric  ideal  of  aw  re  6v"  e/Jxo^eVw, 
'  two  going  on  together,'  became  for  the  time  unrealizable 

1  See  p.  160. 


1850-1854]         Free  Thought  at  Oxford  209 

in  Oxford.  Jowett  was  more  than  ever  isolated  in  the 
studies  of  his  choice,  to  which  he  held  on  with  unre- 
mitting tenacity l. 

Theological  agitation  had  died  down  at  Oxford; 
Tractarianism  was  no  longer  persecuted,  and  though 
increasingly  influential  in  country  districts,  was  at 
a  standstill  in  the  University.  No  onslaught  had  as 
yet  been  made  on  liberal  thought ;  the  Broad  Church 
had  hardly  even  been  named 2,  yet  suspicion  was  rife  in 
certain  quarters.  Mr.  Henry  Bristow  Wilson's  Bampton 
Lectures  in  1851  ( The  Communion  of  Saints:  an  attempt  to 
illustrate  the  true  principles  of  Christian  union)  sounded 
the  first  clear  note  of  a  demand  for  freedom  in  theological 
inquiry,  a  demand  which  was  destined  to  grow  and 
strengthen  for  years  to  come. 

The  challenge  was  not  taken  up.  The  High  Church 
party  felt  that  their  '  strength  was  to  sit  still.'  The 
moment  was  inopportune  for  active  measures :  the 
Gorham  judgement  had  been  a  severe  discouragement, 
and  the  two  chief  powers  on  the  orthodox  side,  Dr. 
Pusey  and  '  Samuel  of  Oxford,'  w^ere  in  sharp  contention 
concerning  the  Eucharist  and  the  Confessional.  But 
that  Pusey  at  least  was  on  the  watch  appears  from 
his  letter  to  the  Bishop,  dated  May  5,  1851: — 

'  Mr.  Stanley  .  .  .  has  been  forming  a  school,  known  as 
the  Germanizing  school.  .  .  .  The  present  Bampton  Lecturer, 
Mr.  Wilson,  of  St.  John's,  has  been  preaching  such  doctrine 

1  Already   in    1846  there  had  into  general  vogue  by  an  article 
been    some    questionings    as    to  on  Church  Parties  in  the  Edin- 
'  Arthur's     future,'    and     Jowett  burgh  Review  for  October,   1853, 
had    written    earnestly  to    Mrs.  where  it  is  employed  to  include 
Stanley  in  favour  of  the  Oxford  Arnold  and  his  followers,  Julius 
career.  and    Augustus    Hare,    Frederick 

2  This    Saxon    equivalent    for  Denison    Maurice,    and     Bishop 
'  Latitudinarian '  was  first  brought  Jackson. 

VOL.    I.  P 


210  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  vn 

as  has  much  scandalized  many  of  the  Heads  of  Houses.  .  .  .  You 
will  be  asked  why  they  are  allowed  to  officiate,  I  forbidden  V 

Nor  did  the  '  great  Tutor,'  as  Sir  Robert  Inglis  called 
Jowett,  escape  calumnious  strokes.  '  He  reads  Plato  on 
Sundays '  (the  Phaedo,  for  example !),  said  the  simpler 
Evangelical  sort  amongst  the  Oxford  youth.  But  the 
imputation  of  '  Germanism  '  cut  much  deeper.  Readers 
of  Arnold's  Life  will  remember  the  interest  awakened 
in  his  mind  by  the  impulse  which  the  genius  of  Niebuhr 
had  given  to  historical  criticism,  an  influence  which 
about  this  time  reached  the  abler  minds  at  both  the 
Universities,  through  the  translation  of  Niebuhr's  History 
of  Pome,  by  Julius  Hare  and  Connop  Thirlwall  of  Trinity, 
Cambridge.  There  were  some  who  foresaw  that  the 
same  spirit  would  not  ultimately  be  warned  off  from 
the  sacred  territory.  Milman's  historical  writings  were 
already  giving  proof  of  this,  and  Pusey,  who  had 
himself  at  one  time  hoped  much  from  such  moderate 
theologians  as  Tholuck  and  Neander,  was  beginning 
to  fear  that  the  more  recent  visit  to  Germany  of 
Stanley  and  Jowett  might  bear  such  fruit  as  would 
deepen  the  remorse  he  felt  for  his  own  former  interest  in 
German  theology.  It  is  idle  to  suppose,  because  Jowett 
had  not  yet  published,  and  was  therefore  not  openly 
attacked,  that  he  was  not  suspected.  His  complaint 
in  1855,  that  men  in  private  conversation  would  listen 
with  apparent  assent  to  opinions  which  they  were 
ready  to  denounce  when  published,  is  enough  to  prove 
that  he  had  given  some  cause  for  suspicion.  In  his 
lectures  he  was  freely  putting  forth  the  interpretations 
which  were  afterwards  embodied  in  his  writings.  And 
his  letters  to  Stanley  show  quite  clearly  that  as  early  as 
1846  he  was  disturbed  by  accusations  of  heresy. 

1  Life  ofE.  B.  Pusey,  vol.  iii.  p.  335. 


1850-1854]  Salvin  Building — Practical  Schemes  211 

'  What  you  say  about  —  —  does  appear  to  be  some  reason  for 
telling  people  what  you  think.  I  have  been  very  cautious 

for  the  last  two  years  past,  so  that has  no  reason  for  his 

charges,  except  reports  of  my  lectures  which  he  gets  from  — 

and  misrepresents.  .  .  .  He  takes  those  things  from and 

distils  them.  .  .  .  He  talks  about  my  atrocities,  which,  con- 
sidering I  have  not  spoken  to  him  for  the  last  two  years  on 
these  subjects,  is  rather  cool  :  nor  can  I  ever  remember  to  have 
held  an  " esoteric"  conversation  with  him.' 

That  he  had  read  Lessing  and  Schleiermacher,  and 
had  studied  Hegel,  could  not  but  be  known  to  the 
younger  men,  and  less  than  this  was  enough  to  com- 
promise a  clerical  reputation  in  the  early  fifties. 

I  have  spoken  of  special  calls  on  his  attention  which 
interrupted  his  private  study.  Amongst  these  the  duties 
of  the  Bursarship,  which  he  had  undertaken  in  1849,  must 
have  occupied  an  important  place.  To  the  surprise  of  some 
who  then  regarded  him  as  a  dreamy,  speculative  thinker, 
lie  displayed  administrative  abilities  of  no  common 
order.  Not  only  were  the  accounts  kept  with  a  lucidity 
and  precision  which  had  not  always  been  observed1, 
but  the  work  of  pulling  down  and  rebuilding  the  north- 
west angle  of  the  College,  known  as  the  Caesar  Building, 
was  now  projected,  and  was  carried  out  largely  under  his 
superintendence.  He  stayed  up  in  vacation  time  for  this 
purpose,  and  kept  things  going  in  spite  of  the  obstructive 
tactics  of  the  Master,  of  which  he  writes  to  ffolliott : — 

'  We  have  got  a  very  beautiful  plan,  but  that  little  fellow 
of  whom  you  must  have  heard  many  stories  which  ought  to 
have  been  true,  all  of  them  falling  far  short  of  the  truth,  makes 
a  stout  resistance,  and  valiantly  takes  his  stand  upon  his  brew- 
house,  which  he  disputes  our  right  to  pull  down.' 

Jowett  took  a  pride  in  making  suggestions  to  the 
architect,  some  of  which  were  adopted.  Other  practical 

1  W.  G.  Ward  and  the  Oxford  Movement,  p.  436. 

P    2 


212  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  vn 

schemes  were  already  germinating,  two  of  which,  at 
least,  were  ultimately  realized. 

First,  that  of  a  Balliol  Hall  for  out-College  students. 
This,  although  mentioned  by  him  in  confidence  to  two 
persons  only,  was  a  practical  idea  which  he  had  very 
warmly  at  heart  for  some  time  before  the  Report  of 
the  Commission  in  1852.  He  even  indulged  himself 
in  a  fond  vision  of  bringing  Stanley  back  to  Oxford 
as  the  Head  of  such  a  Hall.  A  letter  to  Stanley  on  this 
subject  is  of  sufficient  interest  to  be  embodied  here : — 

RUGBY,  June  6,  1852. 

I  am  going  to  trouble  you  with  a  scheme  for  University 
Extension,  '  cujus  tu  pars  magna  es.' 

While  other  people  are  writing  pamphlets  and  reports  and 
theorizing  about '  caste/  and  trying  to  meet  on  paper  difficulties 
that  can  only  be  got  over  in  practice,  might  we  not  attempt 
the  thing  itself  ? 

I  remember  proposing  it  to  you  at  Christmas  :  you  did  not 
encourage  it  then — and  I  would  not  like  to  annoy  you  by 
pressing  it  again.  But  your  taking  part  has  struck  me  so 
strongly  since  as  likely  to  be  for  the  great  good  of  all  and  also 
for  your  own  good,  that  I  hope  you  will  consider  the  following 
points,  and  if  you  feel  hearty  in  the  cause  we  may  work 
together  in  it. 

i.  I  think  it  may  be  fairly  urged  against  us  University 

reformers  that  we  are  unpractical.  S can  raise  

and which  fall  to  pieces  again  from  his  folly  and  Tracta- 

rianism,  and  we  who  '  being  the  children  of  this  world  imagine 
ourselves  wiser  than  the  children  of  light,'  sit  still  and  do 

nothing.  M will  be  deluging  the  Church  of  England  with 

his  straight-coated  buttonless  clergy,  and  no  one  is  ready  to 
show  the  same  energy  and  self-denial  in  a  better  cause.  As  re- 
ligious men  I  think  we  can  give  no  account  of  our  indifference 
to  such  an  opportunity.  As  University  reformers  we  must 
appear  to  the  world  rather  as  seeking  to  make  an  intellectual 
aristocracy  or,  to  express  it  more  coarsely,  to  form  good  places 
for  ourselves  out  of  the  revenues  of  the  Colleges,  than  earnest 


185^1854]      Plan  for  a  ' Balliol  Hall3  213 

about  anything  which  the  world  in  general  cares  for  or  which 
can  do  any  extensive  good. 

2.  This  appears  to  me  true  of  all  of  us — myself  included 
of  course — with  the  exception  of  Temple.  Let  me  add  a  few 
reasons  why  I  would  rather  see  you  than  any  one  else  at  the 
head  of  such  a  move,  (i)  You  have  a  far  greater  name  and 
distinction  than  any  one  else.  (2)  You  have  independent 
means.  (3)  Such  an  attempt  would  come  with  especial  good 
grace  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Commission.  (4)  If,  as 
I  should  expect,  we  had  a  lower  class  of  men  at  the  proposed 
Hall,  I  believe  you  would  be  one  of  the  few  persons  who 
would  treat  them  and  make  others  treat  them  with  perfect 
kindness  and  consideration.  It  is  a  blessed  use  to  be  able  to 
make  of  aristocratic  birth  and  family. 

I  think,  if  in  this  way  you  could  be  connected  with  Oxford, 
you  would  be  brought  back  to  us  in  the  most  honourable  way, 
and  you  would  not  only  have  deserved  your  Canonry  as  every- 
body allows,  but  you  would  work  for  it.  ... 

The  scheme  is,  shortly,  a  Hall  attached  to  Balliol  College 
with  intercommunion  of  Lectures  ;  Tuition  to  be  free.  Room 
rent  also  free — the  total  expense  to  be  reduced  (by  common 
meals,  &c.)  to  the  lowest  point,  say  £50  a  year.  Of  such  a  Hall 
I  should  hope  you  might  be  induced  to  become  Principal, 
with  Walrond  perhaps  for  Vice-Principal.  .  .  . 

I  should  propose  to  begin  by  renting  houses.  The  necessary 
funds  for  furnishing  them  and  paying  the  rent,  and  also  for 
salarying  the  Vice-Principal,  might,  I  think,  be  easily  raised 
by  subscription.  I  would  endeavour  to  give  .£50  a  year,  and 
I  think  we  should  have  many  warm  supporters. 

Suppose  you  were  to  make  the  application  before  going  to 
the  East.  I  do  not  think  it  need  interfere  with  your  journey, 
if  you  thought  of  entering  on  the  plan.  In  your  absence 
Temple  and  myself  and  others  might  set  the  thing  afloat  to 
commence  a  year  hence. 

I  have  not  mentioned  the  matter  to  any  one  excepting 
Shairp,  and  shall  not  do  so  uutil  I  hear  from  you. 

The  position  I  am  anxious  to  see  you  take  is  not  that  of 
a  drudging  College  Tutor,  but  one  quite  consistent  with 
a  Professorship  and  with  the  completion  of  our  book,  also  one 


214  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  vn 

which  would  not  require  residence  of  more  than  eighteen  weeks 
in  the  year,  and  one  in  which  you  would  be  perfectly  independent 

instead  of  being  vexed  as  at  University  with &  Co. 

Ever  yours  affectionately, 

B.  JOWETT. 

Some  years  afterwards  (January,  1855)  he  wrote  : — 
'  I  am  sorry  for  the  annoyance  which  that  and  similar 
counsels  of  mine  may  have  caused  you.  I  should  not  care 
about  it  with  any  one  else,  but  I  am  aware  that  those  sort  of 
things  give  you  pain.  No  one's  position  is  more  justifiable 
than  yours :  I  only  wish  that  we  had  some  additional  tie  to 
connect  you  with  Oxford. 

Twenty  or  thirty  years  of  life  and  leisure  with  the  power 
of  writing  is  a  grand  prospect,  enough  to  make  a  man's  heart 
leap  within  him.' 

It  would  seem  that  Stanley  had  been  hurt  by  the 
implied  reflection  on  his  enjoyment  of  a  clerical  sinecure, 
and  that  Jowett's  heart  smote  him  (after  his  own  repulse 
for  the  Mastership)  for  having  '  made  sad '  the  mind  of 
his  friend.  But  an  earlier  effect  of  that  friend's  refusal 
to  undertake  the  work  so  eagerly  pressed  on  him,  was  to  call 
forth  a  long  and  elaborate  letter  on  the  Reform  of  Cathe- 
dral Establishments,  beginning  'How  may  Cathedral 
Institutions  be  made  to  teem  with  life  at  every  pore  ? ' 

The  second  scheme  above  referred  to  was  the  acquisi- 
tion of  a  convenient  Cricket-field  for  the  College.  The 
late  Archdeacon  Palmer  wrote  in  1894  : — 

'  It  may  be  of  interest  to  record  that  some  years  before  the 
University  purchased  the  land  which  now  forms  the  University 
Park,  Jowett  asked  me  to  accompany  him  and  Chitty  (now 
Lord  Justice  Chitty),  who  was  then  a  Balliol  undergraduate  or 
a  new  B.A.,  through  the  fields  on  the  west  side  of  the  Cher- 
well,  in  search  of  an  eligible  piece  of  ground  for  a  Balliol 
Cricket  ground.  We  entered  them  near  Holywell  Church  and 
made  our  way  northwards  at  least  as  far  as  the  northern  fence 
of  the  park.  Nothing  came  of  this,  but  it  may  serve  to  show 


1850-1854]  The  Old  Master  215 

how  early  Jowett  had  conceived  the  idea  which  was  realized 
in  the  establishment  of  the  Balliol  Eecreation  Ground.  This 
search  must  have  taken  place  in  1851  or  1852.' 

The  Public  Examinership,  which  came  to  him  in  1849, 
and  was  renewed  under  the  changed  Statute  in  1851, 
compelled  him  to  relinquish  the  Bursarship  for  a  while. 
This  was  another  serious  interruption  to  study ;  although 
the  burden  of  the  Examination  was  less  heavy  then  than  it 
is  now.  Jowett  felt  the  responsibility  of  reorganizing  the 
Final  Examination  in  Classics,  especially  in  the  direction  of 
encouraging  the  study  of  Plato,  the  History  of  Philosophy, 
and  the  illustration  of  Ancient  Philosophy  by  Modern. 

On  March  6,  1854,  the  old  Master  died,  and  was 
buried  at  Wells,  of  which  he  had  held  the  Deanery 
since  1845.  He  was  one  of  those  men  whom,  when 
placed  in  authority,  their  juniors  at  once  like,  and 
laugh  at.  In  his  reminiscences  of  "Ward,  Jowett  has 
given  a  vivid  picture  of  his  eccentric  predecessor x : — 

'  He  was  a  gentleman  of  the  old  school,  in  whom  were 
represented  old  manners,  old  traditions,  old  prejudices  ;  a  Tory 
and  a  Churchman,  high  and  dry,  without  much  literature, 
but  having  a  good  deal  of  character.  He  filled  a  great  space 
in  the  eyes  of  the  undergraduates.  "  His  young  men,"  as 
he  termed  them,  speaking  in  an  accent  which  we  all  remember, 
were  never  tired  of  mimicking  his  voice,  drawing  his  portrait, 
and  inventing  stories  about  what  he  said  and  did.  .  .  .  His 
sermon  on  the  "Sin  that  doth  so  easily  beset  us,"  by  which, 
as  he  said  in  emphatic  and  almost  acrid  tones,  he  meant  "the 
habit  of  contracting  debts,"  will  never  be  forgotten  by  those 
who  heard  it.  Nor,  indeed,  have  I  ever  seen  a  whole  congrega- 
tion dissolved  in  laughter  for  several  minutes  except  on  that 
remarkable  occasion.  The  ridiculousness  of  the  effect  was 
heightened  by  the  old-fashioned  pronunciation  of  certain  words, 
such  as  "rayther,"  "wounded,"  (which  he  pronounced  like 
"wow"  in  "bow-wow").  ...  It  was  sometimes  doubted 

1  W.  G.  Ward,  fyc.,  p.  440  ff. 


216  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  vn 

whether  he  was  a  wit  or  not  ;  I  myself  am  strongly  of  opinion 
that  he  was.  .  .  .  He  was  short  of  stature  and  very  neat  in 
his  appearance ;  the  deficiency  of  height  was  more  than  com- 
pensated by  a  superfluity  of  magisterial  or  ecclesiastical  dignity. 
He  was  much  respected,  and  his  great  services  to  the  College 
have  always  been  acknowledged.  But  even  now  (1890),  at  the 
distance  of  more  than  a  generation,  it  is  impossible  to  think  of 
him  without  some  humorous  or  ludicrous  association  arising 
in  the  mind.' 

The  '  old  Master '  had  served  Balliol  long  and  faith- 
fully, and  his  loss  was  sincerely  mourned.  Jowett  was 
one  of  those  who  represented  the  College  at  his  funeral. 

The  following  reminiscences  of  Mr.  "W.  L.  Newman, 
the  editor  of  Aristotle's  Politics,  who  was  a  Scholar  of 
Balliol  from  1851  to  1854,  when  he  was  elected  to 
a  Fellowship,  like  Jowett,  while  still  an  undergraduate, 
bear  reference  to  the  period  now  described : — 

'  When  I  went  into  residence  at  Balliol  in  October,  1852,  I 
became  one  of  Jowett's  pupils.  He  then  occupied  rooms  in  the 
Fisher  Building,  which  have  since  undergone  alterations.  The 
outer  and  larger  of  the  two  sitting-rooms  has  been  parted  from 
the  inner  one,  and  has  been  assigned  to  another  set  of  rooms. 
Jowett  used  his  outer  sitting-room  for  many  of  his  lectures,  till 
on  the  completion  of  the  Salvin  Building  he  moved  them  all 
to  the  upper  Lecture  Room  there.  The  inner  sitting-room,  under 
the  window  of  which  the  well-known  inscription  "  Verbum  non 
amplius  Fisher 'is  still  to  be  seen — he  used  as  his  living-room, 
and  for  seeing  his  pupils.  I  well  recollect  one  or  two  of  the 
engravings  which  hung  on  the  walls — in  the  outer  room  an  en- 
graved portrait  of  Niebuhr,  the  face  of  which  always  had  a 
charm  for  me,  and  in  the  inner  one  an  engraving  of  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds'  "Age  of  Innocence,"  which  also  delighted  me1. 

'Jowett  himself,  though  only  thirty-five,  was  already  grey-haired, 
and  he  was  altogether  much  more  unlike  other  people  than  he 

1  There  was  also  an  engraving  letters,  and  the  title  was  written 
of  the  companion  picture  of 'Sim-  on  the  under  margin  in  Jowett's 
plicity.'  It  was  a  proof  before  hand. — L.  C. 


1850-1854]    W.  L.  Newman's  Reminiscences       217 

became  in  after  years.  I  despair  of  conveying  to  any  one  who 
did  not  know  him  then  anything  like  an  exact  idea  of  what  he 
was.  He  left  on  me  a  stronger  impression  of  genius  at  that  time 
of  his  life  than  at  any  other.  Moments  of  musing  and  abstrac- 
tion were  allied  in  him  with  a  singular  alertness  and  rapidity  of 
mind,  meditative  power  went  hand  in  hand  with  keen  insight. 

'I  well  remember  his  ways.  When  one  took  him  composition, 
he  used  commonly  to  seat  himself  in  a  chair  placed  immediately 
in  front  of  the  fire  and  close  to  it,  and  to  intersperse  his  abrupt, 
decided  and  pithy  comments  on  one's  work  with  vigorous  pokes 
of  the  fire.  Occasionally  he  would  lapse  into  silence,  and  say 
nothing  whatever  perhaps  for  two  or  three  minutes  ;  but, 
if  one  rose  to  go,  one  often  found  that  his  best  remarks  still 
remained  to  be  uttered.  The  silent  interval  had  been  a  time  of 
busy  thought.  The  same  thing  sometimes  happened  on  the 
walks  which  he  often  took  me  ;  I  remember  one  day  when  we 
walked  for  some  miles  in  the  Cumnor  direction  side  by  side  with- 
out exchanging  a  word  ;  then  I  said  something  which  caught  his 
attention,  and  roused  him,  and  for  the  rest  of  the  way  we  talked 
eagerly  and  without  intermission.  He  always  had  a  dislike  for 
small-talk  and  trivialities,  and  never  talked  unless  he  had  some- 
thing to  say.  I  have  heard  of  his  excusing  his  silence  and  saying  : 
"If  I  say  nothing,  it  is  not  because  I  am  out  of  temper,  but  because 
I  have  nothing  to  say."  His  occasional  abstraction  or  apparent 
abstraction — now  and  then  accompanied  by  the  half-unconscious 
"  crooning  "  in  a  low  voice  of  a  kind  of  tune — never  disguised  to 
those  who  knew  him  his  real  alertness  or  the  keen  watchfulness 
of  his  interest  in  his  pupils.  In  later  days  all  this  passed  away, 
not  altogether  unregretted  by  some  of  us.  The  intervals  of 
silence  also  became  rarer ;  I  remember  a  half-jocose  remark 
of  Pattison's  about  him  towards  the  end  of  the  sixties,  "Now 
there's  affability." 

'  I  liked  his  abrupt  and  peremptory,  yet  always  serene  and 
kindly  ways.  "  I  want  you  to  do  this  or  that,"  he  would  say, 
poker  in  hand.  He  was  good  as  a  critic  of  composition,  and 
especially  as  a  critic  of  Latin  prose.  He  had  a  quick  instinct 
for  what  was  Ciceronian  and  what  was  not,  perhaps  rather  in 
connexion  with  the  flow  of  the  sentence  than  in  matters  of 
diction.  He  never  gave  me  fair  copies,  an  omission  which  I  often 


2i8  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  vn 

regretted  ;  I  do  not  know  whether  he  ever  gave  them.  He 
certainly  did  not  spoil  his  pupils.  He  was  most  kind  to  them, 
but  he  expected  them  to  work  hard,  and  he  set  them  the  example 
himself.  I  have  often  taken  composition  to  him  at  half-past 
twelve  at  night.  He  was,  in  the  days  when  I  was  his  pupil, 
rather  severe  as  a  critic  of  his  pupils'  work.  I  have  been  told 
on  good  authority  that  in  earlier  days  than  mine  he  always  had 
high  praise  for  Eiddell's  composition,  but  for  that  of  hardly  any 
one  else.  As  to  Eiddell  he  was  unquestionably  right.  No 
doubt  his  strict  criticism  was  a  wholesome  discipline  for  us.  One 
of  his  many  useful  remarks  has  remained  in  my  memory  ;  there 
is  nothing,  perhaps,  particularly  new  about  it.  He  used  to  say 
that  in  good  English  writing — he  illustrated  his  remark  by  the 
practice  of  Macaulay—  one  sentence  always  leads  on  to  the  next. 

'  College  lectures  were  in  those  days  smaller  and  more  conver- 
sational than  they  have  since  become,  and  much  of  the  hour  they 
occupied  was  spent  in  listening  to  construing.  I  remember  two 
lectures  of  Jowett's  in  my  first  Term,  if  I  do  not  mistake 
(Michaelmas  Term,  1852),  one  an  elementary  lecture,  at  which 
we  used  to  sit  round  a  table  in  the  Hall  with  Jowett  at  the  head, 
and  pull  to  pieces  the  fallacious  arguments  collected  for  that 
purpose  at  the  end  of  Whately's  Logic,  and  another  on  the 
Agamemnon  of  Aeschylus.  Jowett  was  little  given  to  enthu- 
siastic comments  on  what  we  read,  but  I  think  I  recollect  that 
he  dropped  half  a  dozen  emphatic  words  at  the  end  of  one  lecture, 
to  the  effect  that  the  scene  with  Cassandra  was  the  finest  in  any 
tragedy.  Later  on  I  attended  his  lectures  on  Plato's  Republic, 
in  connexion  with  which  I  specially  recall  the  grace  and  felicity 
of  a  kind  of  paraphrastic  analysis  (if  I  remember  right),  portions 
of  which  he  used  to  read  to  us,  and  also  an  excellent  lecture  on 
Political  Economy,  in  which  he  often  broke  off  his  remarks  to 
address  questions  to  some  of  us  which  occasionally  led  to  an 
argument  or  even  a  discussion.  One  or  two  of  my  contempo- 
raries were  very  useful  to  the  rest  of  us  on  these  occasions. 

'  Jowett's  lectures  were  not  in  my  experience  of  much  direct 

use  for  the  examination  Schools,  they  were  hardly  systematic 

enough  for  that — but  they  showed  us  how  to  state  and  handle 

questions,  and,  as  Green  l  once  said  to  me,  they  "  gave  one 

1  Professor  T.  H.  Green. 


1850-1854]    W.  L.  Newman's  Reminiscences      219 

glimpses. "  In  those  days  the  University  was  not  as  much  in  the 
grasp  of  its  examination  system  as  it  has  since  come  to  be  ;  we 
kept  the  Schools  in  view,  but  they  were  not  the  Alpha  and  Omega 
of  our  reading  as  undergraduates.  Jowett's  lectures  were  very 
useful  to  me  ;  I  found  them  a  welcome  addition  to  the  teaching 
of  others  and  to  the  books  which  one  read  for  examination  or 
otherwise. 

'  But  I  think  that  his  conversation  was  even  more  useful.  He 
often  took  his  pupils  for  walks  and  invited  them  to  breakfast, 
and  I  am  sure  that  I  learnt  much  from  this  familiar  intercourse 
with  him.  In  those  days  he  was  quite  unconventional,  and  his 
occasional  intervals  of  silence  may  have  been  baffling  and  dis- 
appointing to  some,  but  no  conversation  was  more  stimulating  to 
thought  than  his.  It  did  not  stimulate  to  research  or  to  learned 
inquiry,  but  to  thought.  The  value  of  a  conversation  with  him 
arose  partly  from  the  fact  that  he  listened  as  well  as  talked,  and 
often  made  one's  own  remarks  the  starting-point  of  what  he  said. 
Indeed  it  was  frequently  necessary  for  his  companion  to  set  the 
conversation  going  ;  I  think  he  rather  liked  those  who  were 
useful  in  that  way ;  I  remember  his  saying  once  how  much  he 
appreciated  the  company  of  a  friend,  "  he  starts  so  many  hares." 
The  remark  which  gave  the  first  impulse  to  the  conversation  was 
commonly  of  little  value  in  itself,  but  it  elicited  comments  and 
additions  from  him  which  were  of  the  greatest  value.  His 
quick  apprehension  and  ready  sympathy  were  encouraging  ;  one 
felt  sure  that  if  there  was  anything  whatever  in  what  one  had  to 
say,  more  than  justice  would  be  done  to  it.  He  was  himself  quite 
candid  and  very  ready  in  comment,  and  one  learnt  much  from 
the  pithy  sense  and  subtle  insight  which  were  never  lacking  in 
what  he  said.  He  was  at  his  best  when  some  observation  threw 
him  into  a  momentary  reverie  ;  he  would  be  silent  for  a  minute 
or  two,  and  then  would  say  something  which  went  to  the  heart 
of  the  matter.  His  strength  lay  especially  in  quick  perception 
— quick  perception  of  fact,  quick  perception  of  character,  quick 
perception  of  the  best  thing  to  be  done.  His  insight  into 
character  was  very  keen  and  was  aided  by  his  ready  imaginative 
sympathy.  No  one  was  more  alive  than  he  was  to  the  subtle 
mingling  of  good  and  bad  in  human  nature,  to  the  frequent  com- 
bination in  it  of  characteristics  apparently  opposite  and  incom- 


220  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  vn 

patible.  As  Sir  A.  Grant,  one  of  his  earliest  and  most  attached 
pupils,  once  observed  to  me,  his  talk  was  less  remarkable  for 
knowledge  than  for  thoughtfulness. 

'  Nothing,  however,  in  his  relation  to  his  pupils  pleases  me 
more  in  retrospect  than  the  fatherly  vigilance  with  which  he 
watched  over  able  but  unsteady  young  men.  He  was  untiring 
in  his  efforts  to  keep  them  straight,  and  when  he  failed  in  this, 
to  set  them  on  their  feet  again.  He  cared  for  them  as  few 
fathers  care  for  unsteady  sons,  saving  them  from  themselves  and 
persevering  in  the  face  of  disappointment.' 


LETTERS,  1850-1853. 
To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

August  22,  1850. 

This  is  dated  Oban,  though  I  am  really  at  Duntroon, 
spending  a  day  with  the  Bishop.  His  powers  of  entertainment 
are  as  good  as  ever — indeed,  he  is  at  times  quite  mad  with  fun. 
I  have  left  off  assisting  in  the  affairs  of  the  Scotch  Episcopal 
Church,  which  he  does  best  in  his  own  peculiar  fashion. 

I  work  with  my  pupils  of  an  evening,  and  for  an  hour  in  the 
morning.  The  sermons  make  some  progress.  I  still  find 
ghostly  comfort  in  reading  Plato  and  Hegel  and  Bacon,  after 
Mauricianism,  Niebuhrism,  Bunsenism,  &c.,  have  departed,  and 
the  shades  of  German  divines  begin  to  vanish.  Many  thanks 
for  your  account  of  Neander.  I  wish  he  had  lived  to  finish  his 
history.  Yet  it  is  not  the  Church  History — how  different  in 
command  of  his  subject  when  compared  with  Gibbon  !  It  is 
uninteresting  and  uncritical,  and  yet  too  critical  to  retain 
a  religious  or  devotional  interest. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

OBAN,  September  g,  1850. 

Manning  and  Co.  have  issued  a  circular  to  the  Clergy 
to  the  effect  that  they  never  intended  by  taking  the  Oath  of 
Supremacy  to  imply  that  the  Queen  could  decide  spiritual 
questions ;  and  requesting  to  know  the  opinions  of  others. 
The  whole  question  is  getting  to  a  very  false  position.  Five 


Letters,  1850-1853  221 

years  hence  let  us  imagine  the  possible  issues,  i.  A  free 
Church  with  spires  reaching  to  heaven,  deriving  its  succession 
from  H.  Exeter  or  S.  Oxon.,  or  haply  from  a  poor  Scottish 
sister,  ornamented  with  the  bust  of  St.  Barnabas,  and  with 
the  virtues  of  Bennett,  Manning,  Wilberforce  ;  having  as  many 
priests  as  people,  with  clerical  Colleges  for  the  study  of  the 
schoolmen,  like  the  primitive  Church  in  every  respect  but  one, 
that  it  preaches  to  the  rich. 

2.  Bennett,   Manning,  Wilberforce  are  already  Eomanists, 
preaching  'extra  Ecclesiam  nulla  salus,'  winding  themselves  in 
and  out  of  society,  pulling  hard  at  the  pockets  of  the  aristocracy, 
and  also  at  the  opinions  of  the  clergy,  upon  whom  they  will  make 
a  much  greater  impression  than  Newman  did,  whose  influence 
decreased  as  he  was  better  understood.     Notwithstanding,  the 
huge  creature  goes  on  its  way  for  a  time  apparently  uninjured. 

3.  The  last  act  of  the  history  of  the  Church  of  England. 
Convocation   has   met :    they  are   revising   the   liturgy :    the 
Bishop  of  Oxford  is  addressing  them :  by  a  final  vote  they  are 
going  to  settle  who  is  to  keep  possession  of  the  Establishment. 

What  a  system  of  terrorism  it  is  with  people  about  'Be- 
generation ' !  Twenty  years  ago  no  bishop  or  clergyman 
would  have  hesitated  to  take  it  in  a  non-natural  sense :  now 
every  one  seems  '  mum '  for  fear  of  the  letter  of  the  law. 
Formerly  the  High  Churchman  was  the  black  sheep. 

FEOM  MES.  JOWETT  TO  HEE  SON  ALFEED,  IN  INDIA. 

April,  1851. 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  hear  from  you,  dearest  Alfred,  you 
are  such  a  comfort  to  us.  Benjamin  often  speaks  of  it.  He  is 
such  a  great  fag  at  College,  we  seldom  hear  from  him  ;  for  he 
says,  though  he  thinks  of  us  often,  when  he  is  so  tired,  he 
cannot  settle  his  mind  to  write,  so  you  must  not  wonder  if 
he  does  so  to  you.  I  can  truly  assure  you  it  does  not  arise  from 
forgetfulness  or  want  of  affection.  I  hope  you  have  reached 
safely  your  destined  station  and  that  you  like  it ;  the  most 
minute  details  in  your  letters  are  acceptable ;  what  would  be 
nothing  to  a  stranger  is  everything  to  us.  I  have  passed 
a  better  winter  than  usual,  and  am  quite  as  strong  as  I  can 
expect  to  be  for  sixty  years  old.  In  my  next  I  shall  have  some- 


222 


Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP.VII 


thing  to  tell  you  ;  little  or  much,  I  must  write.     I  wish  I  had 
done  so  oftener  to  others '.     Emily  says  I  must  send  the  letter. 

To  W.  Y.  SELLAR. 

BALLIOL,  October  26,  1851. 

Grant  told  me  that  you  wished  to  hear  from  me.  Indeed, 
my  dear  fellow,  I  wish  I  could  say  anything  to  comfort  you. 
I  do  not  doubt  that  it  is  well  with  your  father  after  his  long 
and  honourable  life.  There  is  another  world  too,  in  which  he 
will  be  as  happy  as  in  this,  though  we  are  unable  altogether 
to  conceive  its  nature.  '  The  souls  of  the  righteous  are  in  the 
hand  of  God,  and  there  shall  no  evil  touch  them.'  I  think 
we  cannot  help  turning  to  ourselves  as  we  see  the  dying,  and 
asking  what  lesson  the  sight  of  them  conveys  to  ourselves. 
Can  it  be  anything  but  this,  that  we  should  find  our  true 
comfort  in  leading  a  higher  life,  such  a  life  as  makes  death 
and  life  indifferent  to  us  and  raises  us  into  communion  with 
them  ?  They  leave  us  alone,  and  yet  the  world  is  not  lonely 
if  we  look  upon  it  as  the  scene  in  which  duties  are  to  be 
performed  and  work  to  be  done,  ere  after  another  generation 
we  follow  them  to  rest  in  peace.  I  hope  you  will  feel  it  to  be 
a  duty  you  owe  to  your  father  to  nerve  yourself  for  your 
new  post.  Could  he  live  to  see  it,  there  is  nothing  that 
would  give  him  so  much  pleasure  as  your  success  in  it.  I  was 
very  much  struck  more  than  a  year  ago  with  what  your  father 
told  Harvey,  *  that  he  had  lain  awake  at  night  thinking  of  your 
illness,  because  he  fancied  that  he  had  encouraged  you  to 
overwork  at  Glasgow.'  You  only  need  a  small  portion  of  his 
energy  and  decision  of  character  to  give  you  success  in  life. 

To  F.  T.  PALGRAVE. 

[LUFFENHAM],  June  8,  1852. 

Many  thanks  for  your  long  letter,  which  I  was  very  glad  to  get. 

I  am  on  the  way  to  Durham  and  lingering  for  a  day  at  Scott's. 

I  am  sorry  of  course  not  to  agree  with  Temple  and  Lingen 

and  you  respecting  Gladstone,  and  really  feel  half  inclined  to 

sign.     But  though  not  of  very  much  importance  I  think  it  would 

be  a  mistake.     We  should  obtrude  ourselves  on  the  public  and 

1  William  Jowett  had  died  in  the  previous  year. 


Letters,  1850-1853  223 

show  our  weakness  in  numbers.  I  don't  at  present  intend  to 
vote  for  Gladstone,  because  not  agreeing  with  him  either  about 
University  reform  or  Church  and  State.  Also  I  feel  a  strong 
dislike  to  that  over-conscientiousness  of  his,  which,  instead  of 
walking  in  the  great  highway  of  political  truth  and  honesty, 
is  always  winding  round  to  his  own  interest  and  coming  out  at 
odd  places  where  nobody  expects  him.  Were  it  not  for  this 
I  think  him  a  noble  fellow  :  at  present  he  is  too  good  to  be 
trusted.  I  dare  say,  however,  that  Temple  is  right  in  seeking 
to  tie  him  up  with  the  coil  of  his  own  tail. 

I  have  been  thinking  for  some  time  past  of  a  Balliol  Hall 
and  University  Extension.  At  present  it  has  only  been  men- 
tioned to  one  person.  If  anything  can  be  made  of  it  I  will 
write  to  you  and  Temple  and  tell  you,  but  it  is  difficult  to 
manage,  as  some  of  the  Fellows  and  the  Master  would  oppose 
it,  and  others  only  desire  to  carry  it  out  on  a  Puseyite  model. 
Meantime  don't  mention  it,  please. 

...  I  am  sorry,  very  sorry,  to  hear  of  Lady  Palgrave's  sad 
state.  When  I  saw  her  she  used  to  strike  me  as  a  wonder  of 
patience  and  cheerfulness  and  thoughtfulness  for  others  amid 
her  own  great  sufferings.  Remember  me  most  kindly  to  her. 
I  thought  last  time  I  had  sent  the  last  message  there  would  be 
an  opportunity  of  sending — may  she  be  spared  to  you  yet 
for  long. 

Scott's  children  for  the  last  half-hour  have  been  trying  to 
make  me  come  out  for  a  walk,  and  as  their  patience  is  now 
exhausted  I  must  conclude  \ 

To  F.  T.  PALGEAVE. 

CANTERBURY,  August  u,  1852. 

Many  thanks  for  your  note.  I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  that 
one  for  whom  I  had  so  much  regard  is  gone. 

The  last  time  I  saw  her  was  about  a  year  ago.  She  was  as 
cheerful  and  pleasing  in  conversation,  and  as  much  interested 
about  others,  as  if  she  had  been  in  health.  I  remember  her 
repeating  several  passages  of  Wordsworth.  She  said  that  she 

1  Scott  was  now  at  Luffenham,  rectory  in  1850.  He  had  married 
having  exchanged  Duloe  for  this  again  in  1849. 


224  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  vn 

wished  to  tell  me,  as  I  was  a  friend  of  yours,  what  a  comfoii 
you  had  been  to  her  in  her  illness.  She  also  mentioned  the 
pleasure  it  had  given  her  to  be  able  to  continue  writing  your 
father's  history. 

I  cannot  think  any  death  otherwise  than  happy  in  which 
the  mind  so  completely  triumphs  over  suffering.  I  do  not 
doubt  that  she  is  with  God,  and  that  all  this  has  not  passed 
away,  though  what  this  means  I  cannot  tell.  I  do  not  wish 
for  any  other  end  than  hers,  notwithstanding  the  pain  she 
must  have  endured. 

Do  not  think  that  there  is  a  blank  or  solitude  because  she 
has  departed.  There  are  many  pleasant  memories  of  the  dead 
come  back  upon  us  if  we  keep  them  daily  in  the  mind's  eye. 
They  seem  to  urge  us  onward  to  do  something  in  life  before 
the  end  which  is  so  near. 

To  F.  T.  PALGRAVE. 

BALLIOL,  December  13,  1852. 

It  is  very  good  of  you  and  Temple  to  want  me  to  come  to 
Kneller  for  Christmas  ;  at  present  my  face  is  set  in  another 
direction,  to  Malvern  ;  like  Gabriel  Grubb  I  am  going  to  dig 
while  others  are  making  merry. 

Owing  to  a  great  many  interruptions  my  work  has  not  pros- 
pered this  Term.  I  am  anxious  to  get  one  volume  completely 
finished  before  the  Schools  begin. 

It  often  strikes  me  as  a  doubt  (independent  of  defects  in  the 
execution)  whether  the  book  will  not  be  too  heterodox  for  the 
orthodox  to  read,  and  too  orthodox  for  the  heterodox.  If 
the  world  is  divisible  into  these  two  classes  I  see  not  where  the 
readers  are  to  be  found.  .  .  . 

When  is  your  article  coming  out  ?  I  hope  you  and  Temple 
rejoice  with  us  in  the  Class  List  \ 

PS. — Don't  think  I  am  indifferent  to  your  kindness.  The 
only  reason  you  have  for  calling  me  a  Don  is  that  I  won't  smoke 
and  talk  aesthetics  in  the  tower 2,  and  don't  like  to  hear  people, 
especially  my  friends,  run  down. 

1  Balliol  had  four  Classical  Firsts      Kneller  Hall,  which  was  used  as 
in  the  list  for  Michaelmas,  1852.       a  smoking-room  by  the  subordi- 
*  A    room    in    the    tower    at      nates. 


Letters,  1850-1853  225 

To  MRS.  GREENHILL. 

WEST  MALVEKN,  Neiv  Year's  Day,  1853. 

...  I  am  here  alone  at  this  place,  and  have  had  no  one  to 
speak  to  for  a  fortnight.  It  is  not  unfavourable  to  composition. 
Fortunately  I  am  two  miles  from  the  Water  Cures,  and  therefore 
have  no  temptation  to  dilute  my  intellects  in  that  way.  But 
when  I  think  upon  how  many  merry  parties  and  Christmas 
children  dancing  round  trees  and  playing  at  flap-dragon  there 
have  been,  I  fear  I  am  a  fool  for  my  pains,  and  feel  like 
Charles  Lamb  bursting  into  tears  when  he  gave  away  his  aunt's 
nice  cake  to  a  worthless  beggar  in  the  streets. 

Give  my  love  to  Kate,  and  tell  her  to  learn  more  songs,  and 
to  paste  up  the  enclosed  piece  of  red  paper  in  her  bedroom  as 
a  remembrance  of  me.  It  is  a  New  Year's  Gift. 

Remember  me  most  kindly  to  Dr.  Greenhill.  I  hope  his 
practice  flourishes  and  increases.  There  is  nothing  I  desire  so 
much  as  to  see  him  a  rich  man.  Don't  let  him  go  to  church 
on  week-days  too  often,  for  no  one  will  imagine  that  he  has 
a  large  practice  if  he  does,  and  no  one  would  go  to  Esculapius 
himself  unless  they  thought  he  had  a  large  practice.  *  I  should 
not  object  to  Dr.  Greenhill  being  called  out  of  church  every 
Sunday  morning  by  a  flunkey,  but  I  know  his  high  principles 
would  revolt  at  this. 

I  hear  of  Stanley  from  Marseilles  and  Alexandria  ;  he  is 
enchanted,  as  might  be  expected,  with  Eastern  life,  and  seems 
quite  bounding  with  delight.  His  mother  and  sister  came  back 
a  few  days  ago. 

Oxford,  you  see,  is  bustling  with  two  elections.  I  hear 
Gladstone  is  to  be  opposed  by  the  Marquis  of  Chandos. 

I  always  thought  his  election  for  Oxford  would  end  like 
Peel's.  He  will  go  through  one  more  '  conscientious  '  betrayal 
of  his  friends,  one  more  'conscientious'  resignation  of  office. 
What  a  pity  it  is  that  the  most  religious  and  in  many  ways 
high-principled  man  in  the  House  of  Commons  should  have 
got  himself  with  all  mankind  the  character  of  being  the 
least  straightforward  ! 

VOL.    I.  Q 


CHAPTEK  VIII 

THE    EPISTLES    OF    ST.  PAUL.       THE    PROFESSORSHIP  OF 
GREEK.       1854-1860 

(Aet.  36-43) 

POSITION  in  Oxford  and  elsewhere — Repulse  for  the  Mastership — 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul — Greek  Professorship — Vice-Chancellor  Cotton — 
Endowment  withheld — Work  of  the  Chair— Isolation— Death  of  his 
brother  Alfred  and  of  his  father— Second  edition  of  the  Epistles — 
Portrait  by  G.  Richmond — W.  L.  Newman's  reminiscences  (continued). 

A  MONGr  the  '  stately  homes,'  where  Jowett  had  now 
-^-*-  become  a  welcome  guest 1,  was  Ockham  Park, 
Surrey,  the  seat  of  Dr.  Stephen  Lushington,  Judge 
of  the  High  Court  of  Admiralty,  whose  son  Godfrey  had 
lately  passed  from  Rugby  to  Balliol.  It  was  several 
years  after  this  that  Dr.  Lushington  became  Dean  of  the 
Court  of  Arches,  and  thus  had  jurisdiction  in  ecclesiastical 
causes.  No  shadow  of  events  to  come  fell  between  the 
elderly  lawyer  and  the  young  divine.  He  was  also 
a  visitor  in  Dr.  Lushington's  house  in  London.  Here, 
amongst  other  interesting  persons,  he  met  Brunei,  the 
engineer,  then  engaged  in  the  construction  of  the  Great 
Eastern.  Jowett  had  always  been  an  admirer  of  the 
Thames  Tunnel  and  the  Great  Western  Railway,  and 
this  meeting  must  have  been  a  delight  to  him 2.  He 

1  e.  g.   The  Limes,  Hurstmon-  tion  with  Brunei  that  he  was  first 
ceux,  Broome  Park  (Sir  Benjamin  struck  with  the  idea  which  so  long 
Brodie's),  &c.  haunted  him,  that  of  draining  the 

2  It  may  have  been  in  conversa-  Thames  valley  so  as  to  improve 


Relation  to  Contemporaries  227 

delighted  also  in  the  ripe  and  varied  experience  of  his 
host,  who  had  vivid  recollections  of  the  state  of  England 
at  the  beginning  of  the  century.  Dr.  Lushington,  when 
in  Parliament,  had  advocated  the  abolition  of  capital 
punishment,  and  used  to  describe  the  feelings  of  the 
peasantry  in  the  home  counties,  who,  when  a  relative 
went  up  to  London,  regarded  him  as  literally  doomed 
to  the  gallows.  Jowett  often  repeated  this.  To  the 
young  people  at  Ockham,  their  father's  guest  appeared 
as  a  mild  and  amiable  cleric,  in  whom  they  saw  no 
promise  of  great  things  to  come. 

Hitherto  Jowett's  relations  to  those  about  him  had  been 
almost  uniformly  friendly.  Some  may  have  thought  him 
opinionated,  but  there  is  no  trace  of  any  actual  discord. 

He  goes  to  visit  Scott  in  his  country  parish,  and  does 
duty  for  him  when  he  is  '  blind  and  solitary,'  relinquish- 
ing pleasant  plans  for  this  purpose ;  he  stays  with  him 
again  under  altered  circumstances,  rejoicing  in  his  new 
prospects,  and  the  children  insist  on  his  coming  out 
to  walk  with  them.  He  looks  up  Lake,  when  on  the 
Continent  and  out  of  health,  as  if  they  had  not  enough 
of  one  another  in  Term-time  ;  reads  Trench's  Hulsean 
Lectures  aloud  to  him  with  frank  comments  1,  and  works 
in  his  favour  when  a  candidate  for  the  Head  Mastership 
of  Rugby  in  1849.  He  presses  Henry  Wall's  claims 

the    climate    of   Oxford.     Some  repeated  in  a  letter  to  Stanley : 

years  afterwards  he  told  a  party  '  Is  there  one  theological  writer 

of  guests  that  a  great  opportunity  of  the  present  day  who  can  be 

had    been   lost    in    making    the  said   to    be    morally    and   intel- 

G.W.R.,  when  this  had  been  part  lectually   truthful  ?     And   if  so, 

of  the  great  engineer's  original  the   mournful   fact   forces   itself 

plan,  but  had  been  opposed  by  upon  one  that  there  is  no  elder 

the  Heads   of  Houses,  with  two  person  in  whose  footsteps  one  can 

exceptions — Wynter  of  St.  John's,  tread,  however  little  or  nothing 

and  Harrington  of  Brasenose.  it    is    possible    for    us    to    do.' 

1  The    substance    of   these    is  (1846.) 

Q  a 


228  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett       [CHAP.VIII 

for  the  Registrarship  of  the  University.  To  Lonsdale  he 
gives  unstinted  help  and  sympathy.  His  friendship  with 
Stanley  is  the  closest  possible  ;  with  Temple  he  is  on  an 
intimate  and  affectionate  footing,  and  when  his  friend 
goes  to  London  and  engages  in  practical  work,  urges 
upon  Lingen  the  advisability  of  procuring  for  him 
a  higher  salary.  He  is  pressing  forward  every  man's 
interest  except  his  own.  When  he  goes  with  the 
Lingens  to  see  a  review  of  the  troops  at  Chobham, 
they  meet  Bishop  Wilberforce,  who  is  on  horseback, 
while  they  are  on  foot.  He  greets  them  cheerfully,  with 
a  jesting  remark  on  the  Church  Militant. 

In  London  the  Oxford  Tutor  is  respected  and  esteemed 
by  public  men,  such  as  Macaulay,  and  he  is  a  contributor 
to  Dr.  "William  Smith's  Dictionaries  of  Antiquities  and 
of  Classical  Biography,  in  which  the  first  scholars  of 
the  country  took  part  from  1842  to  1849.  On  the  whole 
he  is  swimming  with  the  stream1.  But  a  time  was 
approaching  when  these  waters  were  to  be  troubled,  and 
his  powers  as  a  'strong  swimmer'  would  be  put  to  the 
test. 

After  the  death  of  the  old  Master,  Jowett  seems  for 
a  time  to  have  looked  upon  the  succession  to  the  vacant 
office  as  an  open  question,  in  which  he  had  no  immediate 
concern.  A  letter  of  his  to  James  Lonsdale — in  which 
he  tries  to  rouse  his  friend's  dormant  ambition  by  saying, 
'  Perhaps  you  may  be  our  new  Master  ;  who  knows  1 
It  would  be  a  great  happiness  to  me  if  you  are  2  —is 
sufficient  evidence  of  this.  But  in  the  course  of  a  few 
weeks,  he  found  enough  of  favour  amongst  his  colleagues 

1  Lord  Lingen  says  (1895) :  'Up      its  light  over  his  presence  among 
to  1855,  his  life  was  one  of  growing      his  friends.' 
honour  and  success,  which  shed          2  Life  of  James  Lonsdale,  p.  45. 


1854-1860]          The  Mastership  missed  229 

to  awaken  his  own  hopes.  Nearly  half  of  the  Balliol 
Fellows,  by  this  time,  had  been  his  pupils,  and  the 
self-devoted  labour  of  twelve  years  and  more  had  had  its 
effect.  It  was  largely  recognized  that  no  College  Tutor 
had  worked  so  well.  And  it  became  apparent  that,  of  the 
residents,  he  had  the  strongest  chance.  This  is  proved 
by  the  fact  that  his  opponents  adopted  the  expedient 
of  bringing  up  a  candidate  from  the  country.  Robert 
Scott  had  taken  a  College  living,  Duloe  near  Liskeard, 
in  Cornwall,  in  1840,  before  Jowett's  work  as  a  Tutor 
had  begun,  and  in  1850  had  exchanged  this  for  Luffen- 
ham,  in  Rutlandshire.  He  was  an  accomplished  scholar, 
and  his  lectures  had  been  valuable  (this  Jowett  himself 
had  found),  but  he  could  not  be  described  as  a  '  great 
Tutor,'  and  his  one  distinguished  service,  namely,  his 
share  in  the  production  of  Liddell  and  Scott's  Lexicon, 
did  not  clearly  mark  him  out  as  fitted  for  the  control  and 
guidance  of  younger  men.  But  he  was  orthodox ;  and 
the  opposition  to  Jowett,  of  which  the  strength  was 
proved  by  the  event,  found  in  him  the  most  likely  card 
to  play.  Not  that  the  objections  taken  to  Jowett  were 
wholly  theological.  There  were  those  who  resented 
the  firmness  of  his  attitude  in  College  controversies, 
and  did  not  choose  to  place  him  in  authority.  The 
parties  were  nearly  balanced,  and  all  depended  on  one 
or  two  waverers,  who  on  general  grounds  were  thought 
likely  to  be  on  Jowett's  side.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
mention  names ;  but  two  votes,  on  which  Jowett  had 
counted,  went  the  other  way.  One  of  these  may  have 
been  influenced  by  family  associations.  The  other,  who 
really  turned  the  scale,  was  said  to  have  been  talked  over, 
at  the  last  moment,  on  theological  grounds,  by  a  disciple 
and  friend  of  Dr.  Pusey. 

The  bitterness  of  the  repulse  was  aggravated  by  the 


230  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett       [CHAP,  vnr 

reasonable  confidence  of  success  which  had  preceded 
it.  That  Jowett  resented  it  long  and  deeply,  although 
silently,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt.  His  feeling  on 
the  subject  appears  not  only  from  his  letters  to  Pal- 
grave  of  April  7,  1854  l,  and  to  Stanley  on  April  12, 
but  also  from  the  sympathy  which  he  afterwards  ex- 
pressed in  writing  to  a  friend  who  had  met  with  a 
similar  disappointment.  The  language  then  used  appeared 
exaggerated,  but  revealed  what  had  passed  in  his  own 
mind  many  years  before.  In  later  life,  however,  he  felt 
that  this  rude  check  had  not  been  wholly  a  misfortune. 
He  said  to  a  friend  on  one  occasion, '  I  should  not  have 
been  fit  for  the  Mastership  then.  I  did  not  know  enough 
of  the  world.'  Severely  as  he  felt  the  blow,  it  produced 
on  him  a  very  different  effect  from  that  which  a  similar 
rejection  had  upon  Mark  Pattison.  Instead  of  para- 
lyzing his  energies,  it  roused  him  to  renewed  efforts.  He 
went  straight  from  Oxford  to  the  Vaughans'  at  Harrow, 
where  he  remained  six  weeks,  and  devoted  himself  to  the 
work  of  finishing  his  book  ;  and  on  returning  to  College 
in  the  summer,  he  threw  himself  more  than  ever  into 
his  labours  for  the  undergraduates.  He  again  became 
Junior  Bursar,  the  Senior  Bursarship  being  retained  by 
H.  Wall.  While  keenly  resenting  his  defeat,  he  was 
sensitive  to  every  breath  of  sympathy.  '  It  gave  me  real 
pleasure  to-day  to  hear  that  Johnson  the  Observer  had 
said  that  "he  did  not  agree  with  me  in  opinions,  but 
that  there  was  no  one  whom  he  would  sooner  have 
seen  Master  of  Balliol."  ' 

In  June,  1854,  he  went  for  a  short  walking  tour  in 
Derbyshire  with  F.  Temple,  who  was  still  Principal  of 
Kneller  Hall.  Temple  wrote  to  F.  T.  Palgrave,  July  i, 
1854:- 

1  P-  277- 


1854-1860]  A   Vacation  Ramble  231 

'  We  walked  up  the  Derwent  and  down  the  Dove,  and  managed 
to  make  out  a  veiy  pleasant  tour  .  .  .  discoursed  of  every  con- 
ceivable subject;  sometimes  "making  picture-galleries  of  our 
friends  "  ;  sometimes  settling  the  destinies  of  the  University  ; 
sometimes  examining  the  genuineness  of  the  Pastoral  Epistles  ; 
most  often,  I  think,  comparing  the  scenery  with  other  that  we 
had  seen,  or  trying  to  recollect  all  that  books  of  any  sort  had 
said  about  it.  The  Philosopher  has  only  two  faults  ;  he  walks 
too  slow  and  too  unevenly,  and  he  prefers  tea  or  even  ginger-beer 
and  biscuits  to  more  generous  meat  and  drink. ' 

He  must  have  frequently  visited  London  as  a  member 
of  Macaulay's  Committee,  referred  to  on  p.  186. 

In  the  autumn,  a  majority  of  the  College,  headed  by 
the  Master,  passed  a  by-law  requiring  every  Scholar 
to  declare  himself  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England. 
This  attempt  to  violate  the  spirit  of  the  new  Statute 
was  vetoed  by  the  Visitor,  to  Jowett's  great  relief. 

Two  other  matters  may  be  mentioned  here.  His  friend 
Brodie  was  repeatedly  in  difficulty  about  the  subscription 
to  the  Articles  which  was  still  required  for  the  M.A. 
degree.  He  wished  to  obtain  leave  to  have  recourse  to 
an  obsolete  process  of  'incorporation,'  and  so  to  'obtain 
the  degree  without  subscription.  Jowett  clearly  saw  this 
to  be  impracticable.  His  advice  to  Brodie  is  marked  by 
a  singular  union  of  calm  moderation  with  serious  appre- 
hension of  the  gravity  of  the  position  : — 

'I  think  you  will  rouse  the  "Odium  Theologicum  "  without 
any  grounds  to  justify  you  in  the  eyes  of  the  public.  ...  I 
cannot  see  any  reason  to  suppose  that  this  process  of  incorpora- 
tion was  intended  in  the  case  of  members  of  the  University  to 
relieve  men  from  any  of  the  forms  gone  through  at  the  time  of 
taking  the  degree :  but  only  from  the  residence  and  exercises 
at  that  time  required  for  a  superior  degree  :  .  .  .  much  as  I  wish 
that  you  should  come  here,  and  dislike  subscriptions  of  this 
sort,  I  could  not  think  the  Vice-Chancellor  wrong  for  inter- 
posing his  veto.' 


232  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP.VIII 

He  was  also  consulted  by  Dr.  Bagot,  Bishop  of  Bath 
and  Wells  (and  formerly  of  Oxford),  on  the  legal  intricacies 
of  the  famous  Denison  case l.  Through  Stanley's  intro- 
duction he  stayed  with  the  Bishop  (who  had  ordained 
him  Deacon)  at  Wells,  from  whence  he  wrote  to  Stanley: — 

'  There  is  more  difficulty  in  the  Denison  case  than  I  thought, 
owing  to  the  wretched  state  of  the  law.  It  appears  to  be  really 
doubtful  whether  the  Archbishop  has  any  option  to  refuse 
Ditcher  :  there  is  little  or  no  doubt  that  the  Bishop  lias  under 
the  peculiar  circumstances  of  George  Anthony  Denison's  living. 
But  this  is  merely  an  accidental  power,  which  the  law  could 
hardly  have  intended  to  give.' 

Thus  matters  proceeded  in  an  even  tenor,  though  not 
without  discouragement,  until  the  appearance  of  the  book 
on  St.  Paul  early  in  June,  1855 2.  He  had  been  consulting 
Stanley,  as  far  as  he  found  it  possible,  until  the  last, 
showing  no  small  solicitude  even  about  the  form  of  the 
page.  In  a  letter  written  in  the  summer  of  1854,  he 
defends  an  interpretation  which  Stanley  had  questioned, 
and  asks  for  reflections  on  eight  different  points:— 

i.  Scepticism.  2.  Christian  Society.  3.  Interpretation 
of  Scripture.  4.  Greek  of  the  New  Testament.  5.  Con- 
troversy. 6.  Observance  of  the  Sabbath.  7.  Prayer. 
8.  On  a  future  life.  To  this  he  adds :  '  On  the  last  subject 
I  am  most  anxious.  One  cannot  but  have  a  solemn 
feeling  in  endeavouring  to  handle  it.  What  between 
figures  of  speech  and  idealism,  and  the  contrast  between 
the  universal  acceptance  of  it  in  words,  and  the  common 
indifference  to  it  in  fact,  and  the  interest  of  it  to  us  all 

1    Ditcher     v.     Denison;     see  by  Benjamin  Jowett,  M.  A.,  Fellow 

Brodrick  and  Fremantle's  Ecclesi-  and   Tutor    of   Balliol    College, 

astical  Judgments,  p.  156.  Oxford.     In  two  volumes.     Lon- 

z  Tiie  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  to  the  don  :    John    Murray,    Albemarle 

Thessalonians,  Galatians,  Romans,  Street,  1855. 
with  critical  notes  and  dissertations: 


1854-1860]  Odium   Theologicum  233 

as  we  get  older,  it  seems  to  me  the  most  important 
and  most  difficult  of  all  theological  questions.' 

As  has  been  told  elsewhere1,  his  two  volumes  and 
Stanley's  on  the  Corinthians  appeared  on  the  same  day. 
A  common  spirit  was  perceptible  in  both  works,  but 
Jowett's  Essays  went  far  more  deeply  into  the  heart 
of  theological  questions.  This  was  felt  immediately  by 
friends  and  foes.  Stanley's  book,  though  it  soon  came 
to  a  second  edition,  was  comparatively  little  noticed, 
while  that  of  Jowett  at  once  became  the  centre  of 
animated  discussion2.  The  literary  excellence  of  some 
parts  was  highly  praised,  especially  the  Essay  on  Natural 
Religion,  and  the  Fragment  on  the  Character  of  St.  Paul. 
This  last  inspired  an  ideal  work  of  Woolner's,  a  repro- 
duction of  which,  presented  to  Jowett  by  Palgrave,  is 
the  subject  of  an  interesting  letter  of  October  24,  1858  3. 

Very  different  was  the  fortune  of  the  book  in  theo- 
logical circles.  Grant  truly  apprehended  the  situation 
when  he  spoke  of  the  work  as  '  a  miracle  of  boldness.' 
Religious  prejudice  was  especially  aroused  by  the  Essay 
on  the  Atonement,  in  which  the  moral  objections  to  the 
popular  Evangelical  doctrine  were  stated  with  a  passion- 
ate vehemence,  that  broke  through  the  habitual  serenity 

1  In  my  Preface  to  the  third  to  find  a  further  explanation  in 
edition  of  St.  PauFs  Epistles,  fyc.  the   characteristics  of  the  men. 

2  Lord  Lingen  writes  (Decem-  Both  were  fearless,  honest,  well 
ber,  1895) :    '  It  is  an  interesting  informed   of  their  subject,    and 
subject   of  inquiry  why  the  re-  of     commanding     address ;    but 
ligious  outcry  was  so  much  louder  Stanley  was,  perhaps  by  tempera- 
against  Jowett  than  against  Stan-  ment,  Roman  rather  than  Greek, 
ley,    whose    published    opinions  Ciceronian  rather  than  Socratic. 
were    not    very    different.     One  The   Master,  like  Socrates,  asks 
reason,  said  to  be  given  by  Stanley  provoking  and  unexpected  ques- 
himself,  was  "  because  my  name  tions,  which  are  easier  to  resent 
is  Stanley."    There  may  be  some-  than  to  answer.' 

thing  in  that.    But  I  am  disposed          3  p.  286. 


234  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett       [CHAP.VIII 

of  the  style.    As  the  first  edition  has  long  been  out  of 
print,  a  few  sentences  may  here  be  quoted  : — 

'No  difference  between  God  and  Man  can  be  a  reason  for 
regarding  God  as  less  just  or  less  true  than  the  being  whom 
He  has  made.  He  is  only  incomprehensible  to  us  because  He 
is  infinitely  more  so. 

'  It  might  seem  at  first  sight  no  hard  matter  to  prove  that  God 
was  just  and  true.  It  might  seem  as  if  the  suggestion  of  the 
opposite  needed  no  other  answer  than  the  exclamation  of  the 
Apostle,  "  God  forbid,  for  how  shall  God  judge  the  world  ?  " 
But  the  perplexities  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  are  the 
growth  of  above  a  thousand  years  ;  rooted  in  language,  disguised 
in  figures  of  speech,  fortified  by  logic,  they  seem  almost  to  have 
become  a  part  of  the  human  mind  itself.  .  .  .  One  cannot  but 
fear  whether  it  be  still  possible  so  to  teach  Christ  as  not  to  cast 
a  shadow  on  the  holiness  and  truth  of  God.  Whether  the 
wheat  and  the  tares  have  not  grown  so  long  together  that 
the  husbandmen,  in  pulling  up  the  one,  may  be  plucking  up  the 
other  also.' 

Then,  after  a  statement  of  the  doctrine  of  human 
guilt,  as  commonly  expounded,  he  continues  : — 

'  Were  we  to  stop  here,  every  honest  and  good  heart  would 
break  in  upon  these  sophistries,  and  dash  in  pieces  the  pre- 
tended freedom  and  the  imputed  sin  of  mankind,  as  well  as  the 
pretended  justification  of  the  Divine  attributes,  in  the  state- 
ment that  man  necessarily  or  naturally  brought  everlasting 
punishment  on  himself.  No  slave's  mind  was  ever  reduced 
so  low  as  to  justify  the  most  disproportionate  severity  inflicted 
on  himself :  neither  has  God  so  made  His  creatures  that  they 
will  lie  down  and  die,  even  beneath  the  hand  of  Him  who 
gave  them  life. ' 

He  then  states  the  doctrine  of  vicarious  satisfaction, 
which  he  criticizes  with  equal  warmth,  and  adds : — 

'  We  are  trespassing  on  holy  ground.  There  will  be  many 
who  say  it  is  good  to  adore  in  silence  a  mystery  that  we  can 
never  understand.  But  there  are  "  idols  of  the  temple,"  as  well 


1854-1860]         Essay  on  the  Atonement  235 

as  idols  of  the  market-place.  These  idols  consist  in  human 
reasonings  and  definitions  which  are  erected  into  Articles  of 
Faith.  We  are  willing  to  adore  in  silence,  but  not  the  inventions 
of  man.  The  controversialist  naturally  thinks  that  in  assailing 
the  doctrine  of  satisfaction  as  inconsistent  with  truth  and 
morality,  we  are  fighting  not  with  himself,  but  with  God.' 

These  passages  are  quoted,  not  as  fair  samples  of  the 
Essay,  which,  like  every  part  of  Jowett's  book,  is  full 
of  spiritual  thought  and  far-sighted  suggestion,  but  as 
helping  to  explain  the  acrimony  of  the  assaults  which 
followed.  There  was  no  mistaking  what  this  man 
meant.  He  was  one  to  reckon  with,  and  could  not  be 
safely  ignored.  In  some  quarters,  however,  the  work  was 
being  estimated  on  its  merits.  The  Chevalier  Bunsen 
had  been  recalled  from  the  Prussian  Embassy  in  London, 
and  was  residing  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Heidelberg, 
where  his  house,  which  he  had  named  Charlottenburg, 
was  hospitably  open  to  English  visitors.  One  of  these, 
a  pupil  of  Jowett's,  had  the  privilege  of  introducing  the 
volumes  to  the  Chevalier,  whose  own  copy  had  not  yet 
arrived.  He  remarked  emphatically,  '  Das  Buch  muss 
seinen  Weg  machen ' :  but  added  that  he  had  heard 
incidentally  that  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  ('  though 
otherwise  pleased,'  as  he  diplomatically  phrased  it)  had 
his  doubts  about  the  Essay  on  the  Atonement.  Partly 
fired  by  Bunsen' s  encouragement,  the  young  Oxonian 
wrote  a  review  of  the  book,  which  Henry  de  Bunsen 
recommended  to  the  Times,  through  a  friendly  channel. 
The  article  was  printed,  but  not  published,  having  been 
crossed  by  counter- influences,  which  are  thus  charac- 
terized in  a  letter  of  Stanley's  to  Jowett,  referring 
to  Dr.  Lightfoot's  able  review  in  the  Journal  of  Classical 
and  Sacred  Philology  (vol.  iii.  pp.  81-121)  of  March, 
1856:— 


236  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP.VIII 

'  I  must  say  I  was  pleased,  more  pleased  with  the  good  he  said 
of  you  than  displeased  with  the  evil  he  said  of  myself ;  and  in  a 
man  of  his  turn  of  mind,  I  think  it  specially  creditable  not  to 
have  been  deterred  from  saying  this  much  by  the  popular  clamour 
which  has  hounded  on  the  Conybeares,  Goulburns,  or  Wilber- 
forces,  and  has  muzzled  the  North  British,  the  Edinburgh,  and 
the  Times': 

As  late  as  September  24,  1855,  Jowett  was  fully 
possessed  with  the  idea  of  continuing  his  work  on 
St.  Paul.  He  then  wrote  to  Stanley  : — 

'  I  propose  in  a  few  days  commencing  regularly  with  the 
Ephesians  and  Colossians,  and  think  with  health  I  might  get 
them  out  by  this  time  next  year.  When  you  see  Murray,  will 
you  sound  him  about  it  ?  If  he  likes,  it  may  be  advertised  at 
once  as  preparing.  Are  you  of  the  same  mind  touching  the 
Philippians  and  Philemon?  If  you  are,  I  shall  be  glad;  if 
not,  I  shall  try  them  myself.  What  do  you  propose  for  what 
you  once  called  the  final  work  of  life  ?  ' 

The  Regius  Professorship  of  Greek  had  been  vacated 
by  the  death  of  Dean  Gaisford  in  June,  1855,  and  Jowett 
was  singled  out  by  Lord  Palmerston's  Government  for 
the  appointment,  which  was  made  before  the  end  of 
the  vacation.  His  reputation  as  a  College  Tutor  and 
University  Reformer,  and  his  public  services  in  the  cause 
of  higher  education  generally,  may  have  naturally 
drawn  attention  to  him,  and  the  first  impression  produced 
by  his  book  on  competent  judges  had  confirmed  the 
opinion  of  his  exceptional  erudition.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Stanley,  now  a  Canon  of  Canterbury,  with 
whom  Jowett  stayed  in  the  beginning  of  1855,  exerted 

1  Life  of  Dean  Stanley,  vol.  i.  St.  Paul  and  Modern  Thought. 
p.  476.  It  must  suffice  here  to  This  pamphlet  and  Dr.  Light- 
refer  in  a  note  to  the  candid  and  foot's  article  formed  marked  ex- 
able  critique  of  Mr.  J.  Llewellyn  ceptions  to  the  general  run  of 
Davies  in  his  pamphlet  entitled  comment. 


FACSIMILE   OF   EARLY   HANDWRITING    (1855) 


J       f-f^j,  »  Xe_^C*^«_-xt 

</ 


7 

4^ 

7 


/ 

d^  e^  t^^fH.  *  *] 


J 

^ 


"H*^ 


<r 


J 

/ 


tA 

y 


*  * 


1854-1860]  Professorship  of  Greek  237 

much  influence  on  his  friend's  behalf,  and  H.  G.  Liddell, 
Gaisford's  destined  successor  in  the  Deanery,  to  whom 
in  point  of  fact  the  Chair  was  in  the  first  instance  offered, 
was  also  believed  by  Jowett  to  have  given  him  valuable 
support l. 

Most  fortunately  the  appointment  had  been  made  and 
confirmed  before  the  'cross  influences'  had  had  time  to 
work ;  and  the  announcement  greeted  us  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  October  Term.  Jowett  said  at  the 
time,  that  he  preferred  this  to  any  other  Professorship 
'  except  one  of  Theology.'  The  impossibility  of  this  latter 
aspiration  was  soon  to  be  made  manifest. 

In  a  previous  chapter  it  has  been  seen  that  the  action 
of  the  young  Oxford  Liberals  in  1845,  and  of  Jowett 
amongst  them,  in  opposing  the  institution  of  a  new 
test,  was  regarded  by  Dean  Church,  who  was  the  Junior 
Proctor  on  that  occasion,  as  fa  very  generous  as  well 
as  wise  action  on  their  part  V 

In  the  measure  now  meted  out  to  Jowett,  there  was 
not  much  generosity,  though  there  may  have  been 
something  of  '  the  wisdom  of  the  Serpent.'  The  Vice- 
Chancellor  at  this  time  was  Dr.  Pusey's  brother-in-law, 
E.  L.  Cotton,  D.D.,  the  Provost  of  Worcester,  a  dry  little 

1  The  following  is  Dean  Lid-  of  each.  In  the  end  he  recom- 
dell's  own  account  (1895) : — 'The  mended  Jowett  to  Her  Majesty, 
death  of  Dean  Gaisford  left  the  and  he  was  appointed.'  Amongst 
Professorship  of  Greek  vacant.  the  names  under  the  consideration 
Lord  Palmerston,  who  was  then  of  Lord  Palmerston  were  Charles 
Prime  Minister,  offered  to  re-  Newton  (afterwards  Sir  Charles 
commend  me  for  the  place.  I  Newton)  and  Robert  Scott,  co- 
declined  it  for  reasons  that  it  editor  of  the  Lexicon  and  Master 
is  needless  to  specify.  He  asked  of  Balliol.  Newton  could  not 
me  to  furnish  him  with  names  of  have  afforded  to  take  it,  and  it 
scholars  whom  I  thought  com-  was  thought  better  not  to  appoint 
petent  to  fill  the  office.  I  gave  the  Head  of  a  House, 
him  several  names  with  my  2  p.  96. 
opinions  upon  the  qualifications 


238  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP.VIII 

wizened  man,  whose  notions  of  theological  '  soundness ' 
were  undoubtedly  strict,  but  would  hardly  have  moved 
him  to  act  thus  of  his  own  accord 1.  The  real  actor  was 
said  to  be  the  Rev.  C.  P.  Golightly,  with  Dr.  Pusey  and 
Bishop  "Wilberforce  in  the  background.  Mr.  Golightly, 
whom  some  witty  Newmanite  had  re-christened  '  Agag.' 
was  a  local  clergyman,  of  Evangelical  principles  and 
restless  activity,  whose  betes-noires,  of  about  equal  black- 
ness to  him,  were  Newmanism  and  Germanism.  He  had 
raised  the  storm  against  Tract  XC  2,  and  it  was  he  who 
now  stirred  up  this  trouble.  Acting  upon  a  section  in 
the  University  Statutes  3,  dating  from  a  time  when  the 
term  Fides  Catholica  included  dogmas  which  the  Thirty- 
nine  Articles  explicitly  condemn,  two  members  of  Con- 
vocation. J.  D.  Macbride  4  and  C.  P.  Golightly,  denounced 
Jowett  to  the  Vice-Chancellor  as  having  denied  the 
Catholic  Faith.  The  powers  of  the  Vice-Chancellor  in 
such  matters,  even  under  the  revised  Statute,  although 
rarely  exercised,  were  virtually  unlimited,  and  Jowett 
was  summoned  to  appear  before  Vice-Chancellor  Cotton 
and  to  subscribe  the  Articles  anew.  This  act  of  dis- 
cipline, it  will  be  observed,  was  in  the  spirit  of  the 
proposal  which,  when  aimed  against  the  Tractarians, 
had  been  withdrawn  in  consequence  of  the  opposition 
of  Jowett  and  other  Liberals,  ten  years  before. 

The  only  preparation  for  this  contumely  had  been  a  note 
from  Pusey  to  Jowett,  to  which  he  made  no  reply,  but, 
apparently  while  the  matter  was  still  pending,  enclosed 
it  to  Stanley  with  the  remark, '  I  was  very  much  affected 
by  it  at  first,  but  since  reading  it  I  have  seen  too  much 

1  He  had  been  one  of  the  most      had  been   originally  enacted   in 
stubborn  opponents  of  the  Uni-      the  time  of  Henry  VIII,  at  the 
versity  Commission.  instance  of  Cardinal  Pole. 

2  Life  of  Dean  CJiurch,  p.  29.  *  D.D.,  Principal  of  Magdalen 
8  Tit.  IV.  3,  subsection  2.     It      Hall. 


1854-1860]  The  Articles  again  239 

of  the  writer  to  be  capable  of  being  affected  by  what 
he  says :  of  whom  I  have  much  to  say  to  you  when  we 
meet.'  He  thought  less  bitterly  of  Pusey  afterwards 1, 
but  it  is  right  that  the  first  impression  produced  on 
him  by  these  '  gentle  cruelties '  should  be  recorded  here. 

Jowett  appeared  in  answer  to  the  summons,  and  Vice- 
Chancellor  Cotton  began  to  address  him  solemnly  on 
the  '  awfulness '  of  his  situation.  Jowett  cut  him  short 
with  the  words,  '  Mr.  Vice-Chancellor,  I  have  come  to  sign 
the  Articles.'  Dr.  Cotton  recommenced  his  harangue, 
but  was  again  interrupted.  Tradition  has  it  that  Jowett 
simply  asked  for  a  new  pen1.  He  was  always  very 
particular,  in  beginning  any  writing,  to  have  a  quill 
pen  ready  made,  and  was  a  proficient  in  the  art  of 
mending  them.  But  the  anecdote  has  been  treasured 
as  indicating  his  perfect  coolness  on  the  occasion.  And 
such  truly  was  his  demeanour  outwardly.  But  in  reality 
he  was  much  perturbed,  and  on  returning  to  his  room, 
where  a  friend  awaited  him,  his  first  words  were,  '  They 
have  done  me  harm;  but  I  shall  live  it  down.'  And 
then  he  added :  '  I  hope  my  friends  and  pupils  will  not 
care  for  what  is  said  for  or  against  my  book,  but  study 
the  Scriptures  for  themselves.' 

Jowett's  own  account  of  the  matter  to  Stanley  omits 
some  of  the  preceding  details,  but  is  more  unquestionably 
authentic,  and  may  be  inserted  here  : — 

December  14,  [iS^s]. 

•»/r  r* 

MY  DEAR  CANON, 

Your  letter  was  most  welcome.  Since  I  made  up  my 
mind  what  to  do,  I  have  been  quits  at  rest  about  the  whole 
subject.  You  will  perhaps  have  seen  in  the  newspapers  that 
I  have  taken  the  meaner  part  and  signed.  It  seemed  to  me 

1  This  is  recorded  in  Cox's  Reminiscences  of  Oxford,  and  has  been 
often  repeated  since. 


240  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP.VIII 

that  I  could  not  do  otherwise  without  giving  up  my  position 
as  a  Clergyman. 

Scene.     Vice-Chancellor's  Study. 

A  domestic  picture  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  C.  .  .  .  Enter  Hereticus 
— '  I  am  come  to  comply  with  your  request.'  'Will  you  write 
your  name  on  this  sheet  of  paper  and  on  that  ? '  Done.  Vice- 
Chancellor  turns  over  letters  from  Grolightly  and  Heurtley  \ 
mumbling  something  in  an  undertone  of  voice.  But  before 
the  words  are  out,  Hereticus  says  '  Good  morning '  and  escapes. 

It  grieves  me  to  have  been  put  to  this  sort  of  schoolboy  degra- 
dation, and  also  to  think  that  such  things  are  possible  nowadays. 
I  don't  intend  to  write  a  single  word  in  reply  to  the  attacks  on 
me.  Without  taking  any  notice  of  them,  I  shall  enlarge  the 
Essay  on  the  Atonement  in  a  second  edition  ;  also  some  of  the 
other  essays  in  the  Long  Vacation,  and  then  all  the  help  you  can 
give  me  will  be  most  welcome.  Liddell  has  been  most  kind. 
I  often  think  of  a  sentence  in  a  sermon  of  his  which  you 
repeated  to  me  :  ;  No  man  can  enter  into  controversy  without 
being  sorry  for  it :  many  reasons  might  be  given  for  this,  but 
I  prefer  to  repeat  it, — No  man,  &c.' 

There  is  a  text  in  the  Psalms  which  often  comes  into  my  mind 
in  these  troubles  :  l  Happy  is  the  man  that  hath  his  quiver  full 
of  them z :  he  shall  not  be  ashamed  when  he  speaks  with  his 
enemies  in  the  gate3.' 

It  was  shortly  after  this  that  he  ceased  from  dining 
in  Hall  and  attending  Common  Room.  He  said,  '  I  have 
no  pleasure  in  looking  forward  to  my  lectures  now,' 

1  The    Rev.    C.    A.    Heurtley,  eludes  as  follows : — '  Mr.  Jowett's 
Margaret  Professor  of  Divinity,  case  shows  that  no  clergyman, 
1853-1895.  not  even  the  strongest  pietist  and 

2  i.  e.  of  friends.  a  man  of  the  highest  religious 

3  The  writer  of  an  article  in  character  and  influence,  can  ven- 
the   Leader  (weekly)   newspaper  ture  so  far  to  depart  from  ecclesi- 
for  December  22,  1855,  on  '  The  astical  tradition  and  clerical  forms 
Regius    Professor's    Submission,'  of  belief  as  to  admit,  even  in  such 
after  exhorting  laymen  to  take  an  age  as  the  present,  that  God 
up  the  study  of  Theology,  con-  is  not  unjust.' 


1854-1860]  The  Greek  Chair  241 

and  he  gave  no  inaugural  address;  but  opened  at  once 
with  a  course  of  lectures  on  the  Republic,  which  were 
delivered  in  the  Hall  of  Balliol  College  (now  the  Under- 
graduates' Library).  I  was  present  at  his  opening  lecture; 
and  well  remember  how,  after  a  few  sentences  of  critical 
prolegomena,  he  continued,  *  And  now  having,  as  it  were, 
blown  off  the  dust  from  the  outside  of  the  Volume,  let 
us  proceed  to  examine  what  I  may  call  the  greatest  un- 
inspired writing.'  The  lectures  drew,  and  continued  to 
be  well  attended,  at  least  for  several  years.  Three  years 
after  this,  Grant  wrote  to  his  fiancee,  '  Jowett's  lectures 
have  still  a  crowded  attendance.'  In  1862  Jowett  himself 
made  a  similar  report  to  Stanley  T ;  and  in  1865  the  Hall 
was  filled  with  undergraduates  from  various  Colleges. 

He  had  again  been  thwarted  in  his  career:  the  path 
of  Theology  which  he  had  marked  out  for  himself  was 
found  to  be  beset  with  thorns ;  and  the  academical 
appointment  in  which  he  gloried  had  been  made  the 
occasion  for  an  humiliating  rebuff.  But  the  effect  was 
once  more  to  redouble  his  labours.  G-aisford  had  sus- 
tained the  reputation  of  the  Greek  Chair  by  a  series 
of  critical  editions  of  Classical  books — the  Greek  Minor 
Poets,  Stobaeus  and  Suidas — which  are  still  valuable. 
But  he  had  not  lectured,  and  it  might  be  counted  as 
a  sufficient  excuse  that  while  his  emoluments  as  Dean 
of  Christ  Church  were  considerable,  the  salary  attached 
to  the  Greek  Professorship  was  only  £40  a  year.  To 
many  in  the  University  it  appeared  that  the  Chair  was 
a  mere  ornament  to  decorate  a  specially  deserving  Tutor. 
But  such  was  not  Jowett's  view  of  the  situation. 
It  had  been  a  capital  point  in  the  Reform  of  the  Uni- 
versity to  strengthen  the  Professoriate  and  to  render 
it  more  efficient.  And  with  regard  to  this  particular 

1  p.  325 :  cf.  p.  312. 

VOL.    I.  E 


242  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP.VIII 

Chair,  when  the  Commission  had  applied  to  the  Dean 
and  Chapter  of  Christ  Church  with  a  view  to  their  con- 
tributing to  Academical  purposes,  they  had  replied  that 
the  most  proper  object  for  such  benevolence  on  their 
part  was  the  endowment  of  the  Professorship  of  Greek. 
This  was  in  1854 l.  But  after  the  death  of  Dean  Gaisford 
and  the  appointment  of  his  successor,  this  virtuous  inten- 
tion was  not  fulfilled.  The  cause  of  such  a  change  of 
front  is  somewhat  obscure.  So  much,  however,  is  toler- 
ably clear.  In  December,  1856,  the  Chapter  were  in 
the  midst  of  their  dealings  with  the  Executive  Com- 
mission 2,  and  at  the  same  time  Dean  Liddell  was  attacked 
by  a  severe  illness,  which  compelled  him  to  winter  in 
Madeira.  During  his  absence  one  of  the  Canons  was 
examined  before  the  Commission,  and  on  his  representing 
that  Christ  Church  already  supported  several  Professor- 
ships in  the  University,  it  was  agreed  that  two  canonries 
should  be  suppressed,  and  their  emoluments  applied  to 
the  improvement  of  the  Studentships  as  rearranged. 

The  truth  was  that  the  authorities  at  Christ  Church 
had  become  aware  of  the  difficulty  of  their  position 
consequent  upon  the  opening  of  Fellowships  and  Scholar- 
ships in  the  other  Colleges,  and  by  strengthening  their 
own  Studentships  sought  to  improve  the  relative  status 
of  the  College  as  an  educational  corporation.  Stanley, 
although  only  a  Canon  elect,  having  been  recently 
appointed  to  the  Chair  of  Ecclesiastical  History,  was 
already  using  his  influence  on  Jowett's  behalf;  but  he 

1  Correspondence  respecting  the  to    the    Dean's    illness :    '  Christ 
Proposed  Measures  of  Improvement  Church  at  the  present  moment  is 
in  the  Universities  and  Colleges  of  "  full  of  stirs,  a  tumultuous  city," 
Oxford  and   Cambridge,   1854,  p.  and  they  are  in  the  midst  of  their 
46.  dealings   with  the    Commission. 

2  Jowett  wrote  to  Stanley  on  This  must  be  very  irritating  to 
December  14, 1856,  with  reference  him.' 


1854-1860]  Professorial  Labours  243 

had  no  vote  in  the  Chapter  until  March,  1858,  and  the 
Christ  Church  Ordinance  by  which  the  question  was  de- 
termined had  appeared  on  January  9  in  that  year.  On 
coming  into  residence,  therefore,  Stanley  at  once  began 
to  moot  the  subject  in  the  University  at  large,  but  he 
could  only  do  so  indirectly  until  he  was  himself  elected 
a  Professorial  Member  of  the  Hebdomadal  Council  in 
November,  1860. 

The  course  which  Jowett  took  under  these  circum- 
stances was  to  work  the  Professorship  in  addition  to 
the  Tutorship,  and  on  the  same  lines1,  without  asking 
for  reward.  He  would  not  even  exact  the  Statutory  Fee. 
Not  only  were  his  lectures  gratis,  but  he  invited  all 
who  attended  them  to  send  in  exercises  to  be  personally 
looked  over  by  himself.  A  special  duty  which  was  ful- 
filled about  this  time,  was,  in  conjunction  with  Liddell, 
the  new  Dean  of  Christ  Church,  to  make  regulations 
for  the  Greek  Composition  Prizes,  which  had  been  estab- 
lished by  subscription  as  a  Memorial  to  Dean  Gaisford. 
The  examination  of  the  exercises  sent  in  by  competitors 
for  these  prizes,  and  the  arrangement  of  the  subjects, 
was  another  piece  of  work  which  came  in  annually, 
and  was  entirely  gratuitous.  It  appears  also  from  a  letter 
of  Mrs.  Jowett's,  that  in  order  to  do  his  work  as  Pro- 
fessor, he  again  relinquished  the  College  Bursarship, 
which  was  a  salaried  office. 

These    absorbing    cares    and    occupations    were    not 

1  Jowett    never  admitted  the  chetical  instruction  in  the  Uni- 

broad   distinction  that  is  some-  versity,  and  the  substitution  of 

times  drawn  between  Professorial  lectures  to  large  classes,  for  the 

and  Tutorial  teaching.   All  teach-  College    lectures  of   old  times; 

ing  that  is  worthy  of  the  name  though  this  was  perhaps  an  inevit- 

appeared  to  him  to  involve  close  able  result  of  the  inter-collegiate 

dealing  with   individual    minds.  system  which  he  approved. 
He  regretted  the  decay  of  Cate- 

K  2 


244  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett       [CHAP,  vm 

altogether  unrelieved.  He  found  refreshment  in  inter- 
course with  his  old  pupils  and  in  identifying  himself 
with  their  interests.  Sellar  had  now  been  married  for 
some  years,  and  in  the  summer  of  1855  he  and  his  wife 
visited  Oxford  just  at  the  time  when  Jowett  had  revised 
the  last  sheets  of  the  St.  Paul.  He  received  them  with 
all  the  honours  of  College  hospitality,  and  Mrs.  Sellar's 
presence  brought  in  an  element  of  gaiety  and  brightness, 
to  which  he  fully  responded.  He  visited  them  at  Artornish, 
where  there  was  a  large  family  gathering  in  the  autumn. 
That  visit  was  long  remembered  on  both  sides,  especially 
one  incident,  which  is  worth  preserving.  Conversation 
had  turned  on  Political  Economy,  and  Jowett  had 
declared  that  he  never  gave  to  beggars.  Mrs.  Sellar  was 
an  adept  in  '  Mystifications,'  an  accomplishment  popular 
in  Scotch  society  since  Sir  "Walter  Scott's  time.  She 
disguised  herself  as  a  poor  Highland  woman  and  waylaid 
her  husband  and  Jowett  at  a  cross-road,  begging  importu- 
nately and  telling  her  tale  of  woe  so  piteously  that 
Jowett  at  last  said  :  '  Poor  thing !  She  seems  very  miser- 
able ;  give  her  half  a  crown.5  Sellar  had  no  money  with 
him,  and  before  the  alms  were  forthcoming,  the  secret 
was  triumphantly  unveiled.  The  same  friends  had  invited 
him  to  spend  Christmas  at  their  home,  Abbey  Park, 
St.  Andrews ;  and  their  little  boy  Frank — better  known 
as  'Tornie1,'  not  yet  three  years  old,  had  dictated  a  letter 
entreating  his  friend  to  come.  To  this  Jowett,  who  had 
taken  refuge  with  the  Tennysons,  sent  the  following 

reply  :— 

FARRINGFORD,  I.  OF  WIGHT, 

December  26,  1855. 
MY  DEAR  TORNIE, 

I  was  very  pleased  to  have  a  letter  from  you.     I  always 
thought '  Pupsy  was  a  brick.'    Give  my  love  to  him.     Mr.  Grant 

1  A  derivative  from  Artornish. 


1854-1860]  Isolation  245 

is  coming  to  see  you,  and  has  promised  to  bring  a  ball  as  [big 
as  your  head. 

I  hope  that  you  are  a  good  boy  and  never  afraid  of  anything. 
Has  Mama  been  dressing  up  like  a  beggav-woman  lately  ? 

I  will  come  and  play  at  soldiers  next  summer,  but  in  the  winter- 
time I  must  do  lessons.  A  little  monkey  of  an  old  gentleman, 
who  dresses  himself  in  black  and  has  three  pokers  walk  before 
him,  has  been  teazing  me  lately,  and  I  should  be  in  a  great  row 
if  I  had  not  such  good  friends  as  Mama,  Papa,  and  Tornie. 
Good-bye,  Tornie  dear. 

Don't  forget  UNCLE  JOWETT. 
PS. — Please  not  to  let  anybody  read  this  letter  but  yourself. 

The  friendship  of  Bishop  Ewing  was  another  source  of 
comfort  which  did  not  fail  him  at  this  time.  The  Bishop 
wrote  as  follows,  shortly  after  Mrs.  Ewing's  death *  :— 

'  Jowett  has  been  of  use  to  me,  because  he  believes  in  the  great 
essentials—  the  life  of  the  dead  and  the  deity  of  Christ.  What 
he  says  is  very  comforting,  because  he  knows  on  what  founda- 
tions our  faith  rests.  Others  have  been  most  kind  and  sympa- 
thizing ;  but  cut-and-dry  sentiments,  in  which  everything  is 
taken  for  granted,  do  me  no  good  at  all.' 

In  spite  of  such  alleviations,  the  situation  was  not  the 
less  grave.  He  retained  his  calm  demeanour,  keeping  an 
obstinate  silence  under  all  attacks,  and  could  even  make 
allowance  for  the  asperity  of  his  assailants,  taking  account 
of  Pusey's  Huguenot  ancestry  and  S.  Wilberforce's 
Evangelical  origin.  '  Mere  Christian  love,'  he  said, 
'  should  make  one  tolerant,  but  philosophy  is  also  a  great 
help.'  "What  grieved  him  more  than  the  attacks,  was  to 
find  that  (through  the  action  of  others)  he  had  given  real 
offence  to  simple  minds,  and  also  that  he  received  so 
little  support  from  his  old  comrades.  '  I  thought  I  had 
so  expressed  myself  that  religious  minds  could  not  be 
offended.'  '  Men  join  in  denouncing  what  they  admit  in 
1  Life  of  Alexander  Emng,  p.  253. 


246  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett       [CHAP.VIII 

private  conversation.'  '  How  hard  it  is  to  find  a  perfectly 
firm  will ! '  "With  reference  to  one  whom  he  had  thought 
at  least  as  far  advanced  in  speculation  as  himself,  he  said^ 

*  I  have  often  talked  to on  these  subjects  ;   he  was 

as  free  as  air/  Even  the  attitude  of  Stanley,  his  fellow- 
labourer,  did  not  altogether  satisfy  him : — •'  He  has  failed 
to  make  people  understand  what  he  meant.'  On  the 
other  hand  he  was  quite  touched  when  the  Bishop  of 
Bath  and  Wells,  whom  he  had  formerly  visited  (and 
had  aided  with  salutary  counsel  in  the  conduct  of  the 
Denison  case),  paid  him  the  common  attention  of 
a  morning  call.  In  what  Jowett  felt  about  all  this, 
as  he  himself  was  afterwards  fully  aware,  there  was 
some  exaggeration  of  sensitiveness,  an  almost  fond 
simplicity,  and  a  want  of  knowledge  of  the  world.  He 
said  in  1857,  '  People  go  on  expecting  more  from  friend- 
ship than  it  can  ever  give.'  And  when  a  pupil,  who  was 
leaving  Oxford  for  another  sphere,  on  Jowett's  saying, 
'I  am  sorry  for  you,  going  amongst  people  whom  you 
cannot  understand,'  replied  cheerfully,  '  I  suppose  I  shall 
find  them  out  in  time,'  he  rejoined  with  sudden  bitterness, 
'  Oh  yes,  you  will  find  them  out ! '  His  letters  to  younger 
men,  and  his  own  memoranda,  are  full  of  remarks  on 
the  evils  of  a  sensitive  nature. 

'  Without  were  fightings ; '  but  there  was  no  sign  of 
'  fears  within.'  His  courage  was  unabated  and  his  will 
only  roused  to  more  strenuous  action.  The  Balliol  Tutor- 
ship, which  he  could  not  afford  to  relinquish,  con- 
tinued to  be  the  main  centre  of  his  operations.  It 
was  natural,  after  what  had  happened,  that  he  should 
feel  the  limitations  of  the  sphere.  His  ambition  had  been 
awakened  only  to  be  suppressed,  and  he  sometimes 
hankered  after  the  society  and  culture  of  Trinity  College, 


1854-1860]   Balliol  Chapel — the  Old  and  New    247 

Cambridge,  the  natural  home  of  distinguished  Paulines. 
But  he  found  much  comfort  in  working  amongst  his  pupils. 
Some  hope  of  enlargement  was  afforded  by  the  Visitor's 
reversal  of  the  new  Master's  policy  for  the  continued 
exclusion  of  Dissenters  from  the  College.  But  he  was  out 
of  sympathy  with  his  colleagues,  and  had  no  pleasure  in 
the  proposal  to  rebuild  the  Chapel,  which  was  carried 
out  in  1855-7.  '  They  may  build  another  Chapel,'  he 
said,  'but  never  one  that  has  the  same  associations.' 
The  new  Chapel  was  opened  on  October  15,  1857,  and 
there  was,  of  course,  a  gathering  of  old  Balliol  men. 
Jowett  said  to  me,  'I  rejoice  in  the  prospect  of  seeing 
so  many  old  friends ;  but  not  in  the  destruction  of  the 
old  Chapel' 

He  was  still  absenting  himself  from  Hall  and  Common 
Room,  and  on  this  occasion  he  did  not  take  his  place 
at  the  high  table.  He  sat  amongst  the  undergraduates, 
about  halfway  down  the  room,  on  the  left  side  of  the  long 
central  table.  His  old  friend  Tait,  by  this  time  Bishop  of 
London,  who  had  officiated  at  the  opening  service,  made 
a  generous  reference  to  him  in  his  speech,  dwelling  on  the 
excellence  of  his  Tutorial  work :  '  I  was  his  Tutor  in  the 
old  days  ;  he  was  much  more  worthy  to  teach  me.'  There 
was  a  pause  after  this  speech;  then  Jowett  rose  from 
where  he  sat,  and  said  with  deep  emotion,  'Any  one 
who  labours  amongst  the  young  men  will  reap  his  reward 
in  an  affection  far  beyond  his  deserts  V 

1  There  is  no  appearance  as  yet  mendous  long  name  to  call  a 
of  any  strained  relations  between  fellow  ? '  (Life  of  A.  C.  Tait,  vol.  i. 
Jowett  and  Tait.  He  had  written  p.  199).  Some  time  before  this, 
a  line  of  hearty  congratulation  when  visiting  the  Taits  in  their 
to  the  Bishop  on  his  appointment,  affliction,  at  Carlisle,  he  writes  of 
and  had  simply  added  in  a  post-  his  host  to  Stanley  :  '  He  still 
script,  '  Will  you  tell  Mrs.  Tait  retains  his  interest  in  many  sub- 
that  •'  latitudinarian "  is  a  tre-  jects,  reading  Grote,  &c.  (most 


248  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP.VIII 

His  many  occupations  made  him  sometimes  appear  ob- 
livious, and  as  if  unconscious  of  his  own  speech  or  silence ; 
and  his  fastidiousness  about  language,  touched  on  in  the 
last  chapter,  led  to  a  sort  of  incapacity,  real  or  assumed, 
of  understanding  anything  that  was  not  perfectly  ex- 
pressed. Instead  of  helping  out  his  interlocutor,  who 
was  struggling  with  some  half-formed  conception,  he 
would  say,  '  I  don't  think  so,'  or  '  I  don't  understand,' 
or  if  some  word  were  used  which  did  not  come  into  his 
purist  vocabulary,  he  would  say,  '  "What  does  that  mean  ? 
I  never  heard  it.'  He  was  totally  unaware  of  the  effect 
this  had  on  youths  who  were  already  more  than  suf- 
ficiently in  awe  of  him.  He  had  a  command  of  countenance 
which  made  it  difficult  sometimes  to  know  his  real 
intention.  Like  Ulysses,  he  had  a  way  of  ( trying  the 
spirits/  by  taking  an  unexpected  line.  '  I  suppose  you 
get  your  parallels  out  of  Ast's  Lexicon' he  would  say,  and 
one  had  gravely  to  assure  him  that  they  were  the  result 
of  one's  own  reading.  In  dealing  with  his  most  intimate 
friends,  he  seemed  to  work  on  general  views  of  human 
nature.  When  persuading  them  to  some  attempt  which 
they  were  really  eager  to  make,  out  of  affection  for  him, 
he  would  preface  the  proposal  with  '  One  man  is  as  good 
as  another  until  he  has  written  a  book,'  or '  I  am  thinking 
how  much  money  you  may  make  by  that  work '  (one  of 
critical  scholarship !). 

The  Professorial  lectures  were  continued,  and  he 
was  full  of  schemes  for  rendering  the  Greek  Chair 
more  effective.  There  also  he  was  exposed  to  detraction. 

commendable   in  a  Dean),   and  not    say    that    the    observations 

practising   "  robust  Sophistries "  appear  to   me   to    be   of   much 

as  you  and  I  remember  him  in  weight,   but   it  is  much  to  the 

former  days.     He  makes  many  credit  of  a  Dean  to  make  them 

observations,      prudential      and  at  all.' 
otherwise,  on  my  book.     I  can- 


1854-1860]  Odium  Philologicum  249 

Although  his  name  had  been  more  prominent  in  the 
world,  there  were  others  who,  from  the  peculiar  Oxford 
point  of  view,  were  regarded  in  the  University  as 
'  technically '  better  scholars  J.  Jowett  had  failed  for  the 
Ireland,  and  Pauline  scholarship  was  not  considered  on 
a  par  with  that  of  Shrewsbury,  or  even  Rugby.  John 
Conington,  a  man  extraordinarily  gifted  and  possessed  of 
wide  literary  culture,  had  in  the  previous  year  (1854) 
been  elected  to  the  new  Corpus  Professorship  of  Latin. 
His  edition  of  Aeschylus'  Agamemnon  had  given  him 
a  great  reputation  for  Greek  scholarship,  which  was 
fully  sustained  by  his  subsequent  edition  of  the 
Choephoroe.  This  Jowett  afterwards  acknowledged. 
But  in  those  opening  years  the  Latin  and  Greek 
Professors  were  not  in  sympathy.  Although  a  pupil  of 
Arnold's,  and  in  earlier  days2  an  'Oxford  Liberal,' 
Conington  had  recently  fallen  under  religious  impressions 
of  a  different  order;  and  to  his  old  friends  it  seemed 
that  his  intellectual  interests  were  becoming  strangely 
narrow.  He  was  not  unnaturally  distressed  at  the 
vague,  rhetorical  tendencies  of  Oxford  scholarship,  and 
sought  to  correct  them  by  professing  a  predilection  for 
the  exact,  verbal  methods  of  the  contemporary  Cambridge 
School.  And  when  Jowett,  in  his  dislike  of  conjectural 
emendation  3,  betrayed  a  sceptical  doubt  as  to  the  infalli- 
bility of  Person's  famous  rule,  Professor  Conington  was 
genuinely  scandalized.  Thus  an  Odium  Philologicum 
entered  into  conspiracy  with  the  Odium  Theologicum. 
Yet  Conington  was  generous  enough  to  say,  in  speaking 

1  Among  those  who  had  been  Kennedy  at  Shrewsbury, 

talked  about  were    James    Rid-  2  p.  176. 

dell  and  Basil  Jones,  afterwards  3  See  this  expressed  in  the 
Bishop  of  St.  David's.  Before  '  Essay  on  Interpretation '  (pub- 
coming  to  Oxford,  both  these  lished  1860),  St.  Paul's  Epistles, 
men  had  studied  Greek  under  third  edition,  vol.  ii.  p.  53. 


250  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett       [CHAP,  vin 

to  a  younger  man  for  his  good,  '  Whatever  one  may  think 
of  Jowett's  scholarship,  it  must  be  admitted  that  he  lives 
the  life  of  a  Philosopher.' 

Jowett  himself  took  these  carpings  very  lightly. 
'  I  often  think,'  he  said  with  a  touch  of  irony,  '  that 
unworthy  as  I  am,  I  have  to  deal  with  the  greatest  of  all 
literatures.'  He  must  have  found  no  small  compensation 
for  the  local  disparagement,  although  he  never  spoke  on 
the  subject,  in  the  recognition  of  continental  scholars. 
Otto  Jahn,  in  the  preface  to  his  standard  edition  of 
Plato's  Symposium  (published  in  1864)  for  which  Jowett 
had  collated  afresh  the  MS.  in  the  Bodleian  Library, 
spoke  of  him  as  'an  accomplished  Grecian,  and  a  man 
distinguished  alike  for  independence  and  liberality  of 
mind.'  He  set  himself  at  once  to  revive  his  classical 
attainments — going  regularly  through  Pindar,  and  at 
one  time  reading  a  book  of  Homer  every  day.  He 
had  a  note-book  filled  with  lectures  upon  Sophocles, 
and  Aeschylus  was  continually  in  his  thoughts.  But  his 
main  designs  already  centred  on  Plato.  About  a  year  after 
his  appointment  he  was  making  preparations  for  an 
edition  of  the  Republic,  and  enlisting  various  old  pupils  l 
and  other  friends  for  an  edition  of  the  chief  Dialogues 
to  be  prepared  independently,  but  in  a  common  spirit.  He 
had  commenced  his  own  portion  of  this  work,  in  which 
some  of  his  lectures  were  to  be  embodied,  when  the 
demand  came  upon  him  for  a  new  edition  of  the  St.  Paul, 
the  rapid  sale  of  which  was  a  natural  result  of  the  recent 
outcry.  His  first  impulse  had  been  to  say,  '  I  will  not 
alter  a  word.'  The  book  was  the  ripe  fruit  of  intense, 
unremitting  study  through  the  best  years  of  manhood. 

1  J.  Riddell,  Sellar,  Grant,  Philebus,  and  Jowett  at  one  time 
Henry  Smith,  Lewis  Campbell,  hoped  that  Max  Muller  might  help 
E.  Poste  of  Oriel  undertook  the  him  with  the  Cratylus. 


1854-1860]  Essay  on  Interpretation  reserved        251 

In  preparing  it  he  had  learned  all  the  Epistles  in  the 
Greek  by  heart.  When  he  brought  it  out  he  said, 
'  I  hope  I  shall  not  change  my  opinions  again.'  He  did 
not  change  his  opinions.  But  reflection  brought  calmer 
thoughts,  and  less  for  his  own  sake  than  for  that  of  the 
religious  public,  he  determined  to  explain  himself  more 
perfectly.  He  had  written  to  Stanley  in  1856:  'It  is 
a  great  misfortune  to  be  even  unintentionally  the 
cause  of  stirring  up  a  row  in  a  place  of  education.' 
Indeed,  he  had  himself  grown  dissatisfied  with  some 
things  in  the  first  edition ; — '  Six  months  ago  I  thought 
these  Essays  perfect,  but  now  I  see  such  gaps  and  rents 
in  them  ! '  The  revision  was  a  work  of  great  labour  ;  and 
it  was  not  made  easier  by  the  attacks  to  which  he  was 
still  subject.  He  asked  friends  for  suggestions,  but 
would  listen  to  no  advice  that  seemed  to  imply  a  yielding 
to  clamour. 

'I  fear  I  cannot  expunge  the  Paley,'  he  writes  to  Stanley, 
'  because,  however  disagreeable,  it  is  perfectly  true,  and  it 
would  be  thought  that  I  retracted  it  if  I  did.  Notwithstanding 
the  counsels  of  Johnson  and  Temple,  it  seems  to  me  that  any 
cowardice  would  be  very  injurious  to  me.' 

He  wrought  at  the  new  edition  through  constant  head- 
aches, and,  as  Grant  told  me,  was  compelled  to  reserve  for 
future  completion  an  Essay  on  the  Interpretation  of  Scrip- 
ture, begun  some  years  before,  which  he  had  intended 
to  form  part  of  the  new  edition.  Of  this  more  will  be 
heard  in  the  sequel. 

The  unexpected  return  of  his  parents  to  England  from 
Paris  in  1856  did  not  lessen  his  embarrassments.  His 
father,  always  unconscious  of  the  actual  situation,  was  bent 
on  bringing  out  his  own  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms ; 
and  while  interested  in  his  son's  labours,  was  far  from 
understanding  or  sympathizing  with  them.  A  note  of 


252  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP.VIII 

Mr.    Jowett's    dated   'The    Norton.   Tenby,   October   9,' 
is  curiously  significant : — 

'  Benjamin  has  just  spent  five  days  with  us,  but  he  has  been 
so  taciturn  that  I  think  everything  he  has  said  might  have  been 
said  perhaps  in  five  minutes.  He  is  certainly  much  occupied, 
but  this  need  not  prevent  him  from  unbending  a  little.  I  had 
for  my  portion  one  brief  question  on  business,  and  the  mono- 
syllable "  No,"  in  answer  to  a  question.  I  am  happy  to  say  that 
he  appears  to  be  carefully  revising  his  work,  which  certainly 
needed  it.' 

Yet  the  old  man  was  keenly  alive  to  any  shadow 
of  outward  success.  Towards  the  end  of  1857  an  attempt 
was  made  to  have  Jowett  elected  as  a  representative  of 
the  Professoriate  on  the  new  Hebdomadal  Council.  He 
was  not  elected,  but  the  minority  was  a  strong  one.  and 
he  was  touched  and  moved  by  the  expression  of  sympathy. 
When  Henry  Smith  and  others  went  to  see  him  on  the 
declaration  of  the  result :  '  My  old  pupils !  My  old 
pupils  ! '  in  a  voice  broken  with  emotion,  was  all  that  he 
was  able  to  say. 

On  this  subject  Mr.  Jowett  wrote  to  his  son  Alfred  in 
India : — 

'  The  contest  was  creditable  for  your  brother,  though  not 
successful.  Macbride  had  sixty-four  votes,  Benjamin  sixty-one. 
At  one  part  of  the  day  Benjamin,  by  the  newspapers,  was 
likely  to  get  in  V 

This  was  the  year  of  the  Indian  Mutiny,  and  there 
was  naturally  much  anxiety  on  Alfred's  account.  Though 
not  in  immediate  danger,  he  was  constantly  transferred 
from  station  to  station,  and  was  liable  to  much  harassing 
overwork.  His  death  in  1858  was  a  blow  from  which 
the  father  never  recovered. 

1  He  was  also  really  much  in-  St.  Paul,  and  copied  out  long 
terested  in  his  son's  book  on  passages  of  it  for  Alfred's  benefit. 


1854-1860]    Second  Edition  of  the  Epistles          253 

Alexander  Grant  of  Oriel,  on  going  to  India  with 
his  young  bride,  Professor  Ferrier's  daughter,  was 
charged  with  the  duty  of  inquiring  into  the  circum- 
stances of  Alfred's  illness  and  of  recovering  his  papers. 
These  were  afterwards  kept  by  Mrs.  Jowett  amongst 
her  treasures. 

Jowett's  father  died  at  Tenby  in  March,  1859.  "When 
in  hourly  expectation  of  his  death,  Jowett  wrote  to 
F.  T.  Palgrave  :  '  He  has  been  the  most  innocent  and 
blameless  man  possible.  I  don't  suppose  he  ever  did 
a  wrong  thing.  Though  not  wanting  in  ability,  he  has 
been  like  a  child  through  life.  I  am  glad  you  saw  him.' 

After  this  his  mother  and  sister  resided  at  Torquay. 

The  second  edition  of  the  Epistles  was  published  in 
the  summer  of  the  same  year.  The  work  was  in  great 
part  re-written  and  was  much  enlarged.  The  Essay  on 
the  Atonement  in  particular  was  entirely  re-written, 
and  had  threatened  at  one  time  to  grow  into  a  separate 
volume.  The  concluding  passage  of  the  new  Essay  on 
the  Atonement  may  be  taken  as  the  author's  one  answer 
to  his  many  assailants  : — 

'  If  our  Saviour  were  to  come  again  on  earth,  which  of  all  the 
theories  of  Atonement  and  Sacrifice  would  He  sanction  with  His 
authority  ?  Perhaps  none  of  them,  yet  perhaps  all  may  be  con- 
sistent with  the  true  service  of  Him.  The  question  has  no  answer. 
But  it  suggests  the  thought  that  we  shrink  from  bringing  con- 
troversy into  His  presence.  The  same  kind  of  lesson  may  be 
gathered  from  the  consideration  of  theological  differences  in  the 
face  of  death.  Who  as  he  draws  near  to  Christ  will  not  feel  him- 
self drawn  towards  his  theological  opponents  ?  At  the  end  of  life, 
when  a  man  looks  back  calmly,  he  is  most  likely  to  find  that  he 
exaggerated  in  some  things  ;  that  he  mistook  party  spirit  for  a 
love  of  truth.  Perhaps  he  had  not  sufficient  consideration  for 
others,  or  stated  the  truth  itself  in  a  manner  which  was  calcu- 
lated to  give  offence.  In  the  heat  of  the  struggle,  let  us  at  least 
pause  to  imagine  polemical  disputes  as  they  will  appear  a  year, 


254  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP.VIII 

two  years,  three  years  hence;  it  maybe,  dead  and  gone— cer- 
tainly more  truly  seen  than  in  the  hour  of  controversy.  For  the 
truths  about  which  we  are  disputing  cannot  partake  of  the  pass- 
ing stir  ;  they  do  not  change  even  with  the  greater  revolutions 
of  human  things.  They  are  in  eternity,  and  the  image  of  them 
on  earth  is  not  the  movement  on  the  surface  of  the  waters,  but 
the  depths  of  the  silent  sea.  Lastly,  as  a  measure  of  the  value 
of  such  disputes,  which  above  all  other  interests  seem  to  have 
for  a  time  the  power  of  absorbing  men's  minds  and  rousing  their 
passions,  we  may  carry  our  thoughts  onwards  to  the  invisible 
world,  and  there  behold,  as  in  a  glass,  the  great  theological 
teachers  of  past  ages,  who  have  anathematized  each  other  in  their 
lives,  resting  together  in  the  Communion  of  the  same  Lord.' 

The  Times  was  no  longer  '  muzzled.'  Stanley  was  now 
established  at  Christ  Church,  as  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical 
History1  ;  and  though  his  welcome  from  Pusey  was 
a  strange  one 2,  his  canonry  had  not  been  disputed.  He 
sent  to  the  Times  a  review  of  Jowett's  second  edition 
which  appeared  in  due  course,  October  15,  1859.  In 
this  article,  while  deprecating  what  seemed  to  him 
a  disproportion  between  the  constructive  and  destructive 
elements  in  the  work,  and  drawing  somewhat  illusory 
parallels,  as  his  manner  was,  between  Jowett's  position 
and  that  of  Butler,  or  even  Anselm,  he  fearlessly  puts 
forth  his  just  appreciation  of  the  beneficial  tendency 
of  the  book's  main  purpose  and  effect.  The  article  con- 
cludes as  follows : — 

'  We  congratulate  the  University  of  Oxford  and  the  Church 
of  England  on  the  completion  of  a  work  of  which  we  may  be 
justly  proud.  We  gratefully  acknowledge  that  a  treatise  such 
as  this,  which  has  been  able  to  win  for  itself  a  place  in  the 
Theological  Libraries  of  foreign  countries,  and  which  commands 

1  His  appointment  dated  from       Church  only  in  March,  1858. 
December,  1856,  but  he  became          2  Life  of  Dean  Stanley,  vol.  i. 
a  member  of  the  Chapter  of  Christ      p.  508. 


1854-1860]       Stanley' 's  l  Times  '  Review  255 

the  respectful  attention  of  the  intelligent  classes  of  our  own,  is 
the  best  kind  of  support  which  the  cause  of  religion  can  receive 
in  an  age  like  ours.  Professor  Jowett  is  well  known  to  have 
acquired  by  his  personal  character,  and  by  his  unwearied  devo- 
tion to  the  work  of  education,  an  influence  over  the  rising 
generation  such  as  few,  if  any,  of  his  academical  contemporaries 
have  attained.  Let  that  influence  be  used  in  the  direction  indi- 
cated in  the  foregoing  extracts  from  his  work,  and  we  may  rest 
well  assured  that  the  cynical  and  sceptical  spirit  of  the  time  will 
have  met  with  an  antidote  such  as  we  shall  vainly  expect  from 
any  other  quarter.' 

That  was  well  and  truly  said,  and  has  been  too  little 
regarded ;  but  it  was  rather  strange  that  Stanley, 
who  prided  himself  on  having  an  eye  for  resemblances 
where  other  men  saw  differences,  should  have  put  so 
clearly  as  he  does  in  other  parts  of  this  review  the 
points  of  divergence  between  his  own  opinions  and  those 
of  his  ally.  Yet  the  fact  of  the  contrast  only  makes 
the  bravery  of  the  defence  more  honourable.  His 
friend's  picturesqueness,  on  the  other  hand,  sometimes 
rather  grated  upon  Jowett.  At  a  luncheon  party  in  the 
room  in  the  Fisher  Building,  Stanley  once  described 
with  great  animation  a  Byzantine  procession  in  which 
the  fasces,  which  had  been  the  symbol  of  Imperial  power 
and  were  carried  before  some  magistrate,  had  been  gradu- 
ally reduced  to  a  single  reed.  '  And  with  that  reed,' 
said  Jowett,  looking  archly  mischievous,  '  disappeared 
the  last  vestige  of  the  Roman  empire  ! '  'I  am  glad,' 
said  Bunsen,  speaking  of  the  Introduction  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians,  '  that  he  has  touched  on  the  topographical  fanci- 
fulness  of  some  of  his  good  friends.' 

Conversing  in  Christ  Church  meadow  in  October, 
1859,  Stanley  showed  great  curiosity  as  to  the  author- 
ship of  the  review  of  the  first  edition,  which  had 
been  stifled  in  1855.  The  author  confessed,  and  the 


256  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP.VIII 

printed  copy   was  sent  to  Stanley,  who   acknowledged 
it  as  follows : — 

'  Many  thanks  for  the  enclosed.  Had  it  appeared  when  it  was 
intended  to  have  appeared,  the  whole  history  of  the  last  five, 
perhaps  of  the  next  fifty,  years  would  have  been  different. 
The  beginning  and  end  will  be  always  available  for  future  use. 
I  envy  you  the  adaptation  of  the  story  of  David  in  the  last 
paragraph. ' 

Almost  immediately  on  the  publication  of  the  second 
edition  of  St.  Paul,  after  indulging  himself,  as  Mr.  W.  L. 
Newman  tells  us,  with  Aristophanes,  Jowett  returned 
to  his  commentary  on  the  Republic  of  Plato,  and  had 
finished  the  series  of  notes  in  a  first  draft  before  the 
beginning  of  September.  These  notes,  however,  though 
he  continued  working  at  them,  were  not  to  see  the 
light  for  thirty-five  years  to  come. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  a  group  of  his  old  pupils, 
including  Sellar,  Grant,  Palgrave,  and  a  few  more,  sub- 
scribed for  a  portrait  of  Jowett,  in  crayons,  by  G.  Rich- 
mond, which  was  presented  to  Mrs.  Jowett.  The  repro- 
duction of  this  drawing  is  well  known,  and  a  reduced 
copy  of  the  original  forms  the  frontispiece  of  this  volume. 
One  who  was  not  a  '  Jowett-worshipper '  remarked  at 
the  time,  '  To  do  Jowett  justice,  he  is  not  such  a  lady- 
killer  as  that  makes  him.'  On  the  other  hand,  some 
of  those  who  saw  his  face  in  the  repose  of  death  were 
involuntarily  reminded  of  this  early  portrait l. 

Mr.  W.  L.  Neitman's  Reminiscences  (continued  from  p.  210). 

'His  gifts  ensured  him  unbounded  influence  with  young 
men  of  ability.  His  marked  individuality  of  character, 
which  made  itself  felt  in  everything  he  said  or  did,  his  kindly 
peremptoriness,  his  combination  of  force  of  character  with  gentle- 

1  See  Lord  Lingen's  remark,  p.  228. 


1854-1860]  W.  L.  Newman's  Reminiscences       257 

ness,  of  many-sidedness  with  intensity,  of  great  powers  of 
thought  with  practical  ability,  won  enthusiastic  acceptance 
from  clever  young  men.  His  interests  were  almost  as 
varied  as  his  gifts.  Here  was  a  man  who  seemed  to 
stand  at  the  parting  of  many  ways.  Religion,  philosophy, 
poetry,  Greek  literature — these  were  his  favourite  studies,  but 
he  added  to  them  a  keen  interest  in  human  nature  and  in 
practical  business.  There  was  nothing  cramping  about  his  influ- 
ence over  us.  I  never  found  that  he  made  any  effort  to  enforce 
on  me  any  particular  set  of  views.  His  strong  sense  of  humour 
was  an  added  charm.  I  think  it  was  just  after  he  brought  out 
the  second  edition  of  his  book  on  St.  Paul  that  he  said  to  me, 
needing  no  doubt  some  relief  from  the  drudgery  of  proofs, 
"  Now  I  must  read  some  Aristophanes." 

'  When  the  disappointment  about  the  Mastership  came,  some 
slight  indications  of  vexation  were  traceable  in  his  conversation 
even  with  an  undergraduate  like  me,  but  his  work  with  his 
pupils  continued  precisely  as  before.  It  was  not,  I  think,  till 
some  time  later  that  he  ceased  to  dine  in  Hall  and  to  appear 
after  dinner  in  Common  Room.  The  exact  date  at  which  this 
happened  I  am  unable  to  recollect.  I  was  absent  from  Oxford 
owing  to  illness  from  December,  1855,  to  October,  1857,  and  I 
think  that  this  change  in  his  ways  may  have  commenced  during 
my  absence.  I  doubt  whether  he  dined  much  in  Hall  after  my 
return  to  Oxford.  We  lost  much  by  his  absence,  but  even 
without  him  the  Balliol  Common  Room  remained  a  notable 
gathering.  There  is  nothing  in  my  Oxford  life  to  which  I  look 
back  with  more  pleasure  than  to  the  evenings  which  I  spent 
there  in  the  company  of  H.  J.  S.  Smith,  E.  Palmer,  J.  Riddell, 
T.  H.  Green,  and  many  others  who  might  be  named,  men 
who  were  as  valuable  and  acceptable  socially  as  they  were  in 
all  other  ways.  Jowett's  withdrawal  did  not  make  his  rela- 
tions with  the  rest  of  our  body  otherwise  than  amicable.  Some 
of  the  Fellows  had  been  his  pupils,  and  felt  towards  him  as 
pupils  would.  Achilles  preferred  his  tent,  but  his  tent  was 
a  hospitable  one,  and  I  used  often  to  breakfast  and  dine 
with  him,  and  we  often  took  walks  together.  Smith,  and 
I  think  Green,  saw  still  more  of  him.  He  of  course  saw 
much  of  his  pupils,  but  he  also  saw  much  of  friends 

VOL.    I.  S 


258  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett 

from  London  and  elsewhere  of  an  age  and  position  similar  to 
his  own.  Our  friendship  for  him  did  not  interfere  in  any 
degree  with  friendly  relations  with  the  rest  of  our  seniors  among 
the  Fellows.  On  some  topics  our  opinions  were  not  theirs,  but 
we  found  them,  and  the  new  Head  of  the  College,  so  genial  and 
kindly,  and  some  of  them  so  useful  as  models  and  advisers,  that 
we  worked  together  with  real  pleasure  and  in  complete  harmony. 
The  College  prospered  well,  and  Jowett's  influence  in  it  grew 
as  one  of  his  pupils  after  another  was  added  to  the  body  of 
Fellows.  As  far  back  as  I  can  remember,  Jowett  always  sug- 
gested the  subject  of  the  English  Essay  in  Scholarship  and  Fellow- 
ship examinations.  Many  good  and  useful  measures  adopted 
in  College  meeting  originated  with  him.  One  of  the  earliest 
of  these  was  the  foundation  of  the  Domus  Exhibitions  (about 
1858).  At  a  still  earlier  time,  if  I  do  not  mistake,  the  whole- 
some rule  was  adopted,  thanks,  I  believe,  to  Theodore  Walrond, 
that  all  undergraduate  members  of  the  College  should  go  in  for 
honours  in  some  examination  school  or  other.  Another  useful 
change  was  made  when  undergraduates  were  allowed,  with  the 
advice  of  their  Tutor,  to  choose  their  own  lectures  *.  Jowett 
was  unwearied  in  maintaining  or  increasing  the  strictness 
of  the  matriculation  examination.  All  these  things  did  much 
for  the  College/ 

1  This  was  not  carried  out  till  1867. — L.  C. 


CHAPTER  IX 

FKIENDS   AND   PUPILS.       1854-1860 

THEOLOGICAL  attitude  —  Desultory  studies  —  Advice  to  young 
writers  and  preachers—  Society  in  Scotland  and  elsewhere—  Pre- 
paration of  Essays  and  Reviews—  Publication  of  the  volume  —  Letters. 


preceding  chapter  does  not  exhaust  the  interest 
of   the  years  from    1854-60.     I  proceed  to    make 
a  few  general  observations  on  Jowett's  mental  attitude 
during  this  period. 

First  as  to  Theology  :  '  after  toil  and  storm/  having 
mournfully  realized  'that  there  is  no  elder  person  in 
whose  footsteps  one  can  tread1/  he  had  by  persistent 
efforts  reached  a  point  of  view  from  which,  while 
retaining  all  that  seemed  essential  in  the  traditions  of 
the  past,  he  felt  able  to  bring  the  spiritual  principles 
involved  in  them  to  bear  with  fresh  significance  on 
the  life  of  the  present.  He  wrote  to  a  young  friend  : 
'  I  do  not  know  that  you  care  to  plunge  into  the  abyss  of 
theology.  But  I  shall  always  maintain  that  there  is  no 
abyss,  and  that,  without  relying  on  fables  or  fancies,  any 
who  will  may  find  their  way  through  this  world  with 
sufficient  knowledge  to  light  them  to  another/  But 
there  were  obstructions  to  be  overcome,  and  these  proved 
more  serious  than  he  had  reckoned.  He  was  all  the 

1  p.  227,  note. 
s  2 


260  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  ix 

more  bent  on  overcoming  them.  No  greater  benefit 
could  be  conferred  011  any  age,  he  thought,  than  to 
clear  and  purify  religious  ideas.  The  greatest  of  all 
difficulties  lay  in  the  attitude  of  religious  men,  who 
refused  to  recognize  the  obvious  results  of  historical 
criticism,  and  persisted  in  maintaining  the  sacredness  of 
propositions,  against  which  the  intellect  and  moral  sense 
of  mankind,  at  the  stage  of  culture  which  the  world 
had  attained,  could  not  but  revolt.  They  appeared  to 
think  it  possible  to  keep  knowledge  at  one  level  in 
England,  when  it  had  reached  another  level  in  Germany. 
He  had  felt  this  even  before  the  publication  of  his 
book,  as  appears  from  his  letters  to  Stanley  of  August, 
I8461.  The  great  danger,  in  his  opinion,  was — not  lest 
reason  should  destroy  religion,  but  lest  intellectual 
persons  should  reject  the  truth  itself,  when  stated  in 
grotesque  and  impossible  forms.  Jowett  was  profoundly 
attached  to  Christianity,  which  had  penetrated  to  the 
very  core  of  his  nature ;  to  the  Bible,  which  he  desired 
to  see  made  the  rule  of  life,  not  in  the  letter,  but  in 
the  spirit ;  and  to  the  Church  of  England,  whose  ministry 
seemed  likely  to  be  impoverished  by  the  unrealities  of 
popular  theology,  and  the  refusal  of  Ordination  on  the 
part  of  highly  educated  men.  To  cast  off  the  incrusta- 
tions with  which  historical  Christianity  was  so  heavily 
encumbered,  and  to  bring  into  clearer  light  what  was 
of  eternal  import,  without  breaking  rudely  with  the  past 
or  ignoring  present  needs,  was  the  problem  which  he 
had  set  himself  to  solve.  He  was  thwarted  in  this  course, 
but,  having  set  his  face  that  way,  was  more  and  more 
determined  to  continue  in  it.  Reformations,  he  began 
to  feel,  were  not  to  be  made  with  rose-water. 

Philosophy  held  the   second  place   in    his  thoughts. 
1  pp- 150.  i53 ;  cf.  P.  175- 


1854-1860]         Religion  and  Philosophy  261 

He  still  acknowledged  the  debt  which  as  a  thinker  he 
owed  to  German  philosophy.  The  hope  which  Kant 
had  raised  of  laying  hold  upon  an  Absolute  behind  the 
Relative,  had  involved  the  mind  in  difficulties,  which 
Hegel  seemed  to  have  cleared  away,  by  showing  that 
the  Absolute  was  a  unity  within  which  all  relations  were 
embraced,  and  that  it  was  to  be  sought  in  the  universe 
and  not  beyond  it. 

'The  study  of  Hegel  has  given  me  a  method,'  he 
used  to  say;  but  he  refused  to  be  bound  within  the 
limits  of  any  system,  making  fact  the  final  test  of 
theory. 

He  looked  with  interest,  but  with  imperfect  sympathy, 
upon  the  rise  of  the  Positivist  sect  in  Oxford.  R.  Con- 
greve  had  returned  to  Wadham  from  Rugby  about 
1848 ;  his  pupils,  Frederic  Harrison,  J.  H.  Bridges,  and 
E.  S.  Beesly,  graduated  in  1853-4.  These  were  amongst 
Comte's  earliest  converts  in  England.  When  he  saw 
young  men  taking  up  a  radical  or  extreme  position, 
Jowett  always  wondered  what  their  future  would  be. 
Speaking  of  G.  H.  Lewes's  History  of  Philosophy,  he  said 
he  thought  it  a  poor  thing  to  have  studied  all  philosophies 
and  to  end  in  adopting  that  of  Auguste  Comte. 

At  this  time  he  still  encouraged  the  ablest  of  his 
pupils  in  the  study  of  Hegel.  He  valued  Plato  even 
more  for  his  marvellous  originality  and  suggestiveness. 
'Germs  of  all  ideas  are  to  be  found  in  Plato.'  And 
in  recommending  the  study  he  used  to  say,  'Aristotle 
is  dead,  but  Plato  is  alive.' 

In  interpreting  Plato,  as  before  in  interpreting  St.  Paul, 
he  sought  to  get  behind  the  accretions  of  after  ages,  suclj 
as  the  Neo-Platonism  of  the  fifth  and  fifteenth  centuries, 
and  to  bring  out  the  original  meaning  of  his  author. 

Neither  in  religion   nor  in  philosophy  did   he    ever 
t 


262  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  ix 

seek  to  form  a  school.  He  rather  discouraged  some 
too  eager  disciples,  saying  that '  to  meddle  in  theology 
required  an  exceptionally  happy  nature.'  His  one 
thought  in  dealing  with  his  pupils  was,  what  was  best 
individually  for  them.  Nothing  angered  him  so  much 
as  to  find  that  a  former  pupil  had  been  incurring  odium 
in  defending  him.  '  We  must  all  fight  our  own  battles,' 
were  his  last  words  at  parting  from  one  of  them,  and 
they  were  said  with  energetic  warmth.  'I  was  sorry 
to  hear  that  you  had  got  a  reputation  for  heterodoxy 

with  Mr.  .     Will  you  be  careful  of  this  ?   A  young 

man  is  in  great  danger  of  becoming  powerless  who  is 
shelved  in  this  way.'  The  power  of  personal  influence, 
which  had  been  conspicuous  in  some  members  of  the 
High  Church  party,  he  thought  might  have  been  valuable 
if  they  had  also  had  the  power  of  respecting  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  persons  whom  they  had  influenced. 
Once  in  passing  Littlemore,  he  glanced  at  the  building 
where  Newman  had  drawn  together  his  followers  in  the 
year  before  his  secession.  '  It  was  very  unfair  to  those 
young  men,'  he  said.  Nor  was  he  readily  disposed  to 
strengthen  his  own  position  by  allying  himself  with 
others,  merely  because  they  had  also  fallen  under  the 
ecclesiastical  ban.  Some  of  F.  D.  Maurice's  disciples 
were  provoked  at  his  persistent  silence  with  regard  to 
their  teacher.  '  I  shall  never  join  with  that  modern  Neo- 
Platonism,'  was  his  remark  to  one  who  had  hinted  this : 
1  it  is  so  easy  to  substitute  one  mysticism  for  another.' 

No  speculative  difficulties  confused  his  practical  sense. 
While  exercising  the  utmost  freedom  in  speculation, 
his  constant  aim  was  to  hold  a  just  balance  between 
philosophy  and  actual  life.  He  often  quoted  the  saying 
of  Coleridge,  '  The  only  common  sense  worth  having 
is  that  which  is  based  on  metaphysics ' ;  and  he  upheld 


1854-1860]      The  Church  and  the  World  263 

the  converse  proposition, '  Metaphysics  should  be  grounded 
in  common  sense.'  Far-seeing  as  were  his  views  of  future 
possibilities  for  mankind,  he  seldom  practically  approved 
of  radical  change. 

No  part  of  his  theological  writings  was  more  directly 
the  outcome  of  his  experience,  than  the  passage  in  the 
essay  on  Natural  Religion,  in  which  he  seeks  to  overcome 
the  opposition  which  religious  minds  had  been  too  apt 
to  make  between  the  Church  and  the  "World,  'the  one 
half  of  human  nature  and  the  other1.'  He  was  fond 
of  that  sentence  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne's,  '  For  my  con- 
versation, it  is  as  the  sun's  with  all  men,  and  with 
a  friendly  aspect  towards  good  and  bad.'  Another 
paradox  which  sometimes  led  to  misunderstanding  was 
his  determination  to  keep  apart  moral  and  political 
considerations,  and  at  this  period  he  was  sometimes  under- 
stood to  insist  that  while  moral  goodness  made  for  the 
happiness  of  its  owner,  intellectual  power  was  more 
beneficent  in  its  action  upon  the  world  at  large.  Yet 
in  his  dealings  with  the  world  he  never  lost  sight  of 
his  religious  vocation.  He  knew  well  how  to  blend 
the  tenderest  sympathy  with  unbending  severity. 

The  widow  of  one  of  his  old  friends,  who  had  observed 
his  dealings  with  undergraduates  about  this  time,  says  : — 

'I  always  admired  Mr.  Jowett's  wonderful  reticence  and 
refinement,  coupled  with  sternness  and  swift,  decided  action, 

1  The  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  fyc.,  he  was  always  disposed  to  regard 

third  edition,  vol.  ii.  pp.  241-243.  worldly  success  as  a  test  of  merit 

A  remark  of  the  Warden  of  Mer-  in  a  sense  against  which  I  rebel, 

ton  expresses  a  very  general  view  and,  in  one  of  my  early  conver- 

upon  this  subject :   '  He  never  af-  sations  with  him,  he  expressed  a 

fected   or  specially   admired  an  most  earnest  hope  that  his  pupils 

"  unworldly  "  character.   Though  would  not,  like  those  of  another 

no  man   was  ever  less  actuated  great  teacher,  "  make  a  mess  of 

by  the  lower  forms  of  ambition,  life"!' 


264  Life  of  Benjamin  Joivett         [CHAP,  ix 

when  needful,  in  cases  where  moral  corruption  called  for 
drastic  measures.  At  the  same  time  he  never  seemed  to 
give  any  man  up  as  hopeless  or  beyond  the  reach  of  sympathy 
and  help.' 

He  found  time  amidst  all  his  pressing  avocations  to 
write  to  a  young  friend,  who  was  going  for  the  first 
time  to  a  public  school,  a  letter  to  which  the  recipient 
reverted  in  later  life,  with  mingled  gratitude  and 
admiration,  as  having  conveyed  to  him  with  equal 
delicacy  and  frankness  a  horror  of  schoolboy  vice,  which 
secured  him  from  contamination. 

He  still  found  relief  from  his  exhausting  labours 
in  voracious  reading,  going  back  again  and  again  to 
his  old  favourites,  Boswell's  Johnson,  Pepys'  Diary,  &c., 
and  fastening  upon  each  book  of  interest  as  it  came 
out.  He  was  greatly  interested  in  Adam  Bede,  which, 
it  will  be  remembered,  was  at  first  attributed  to  a  clergy- 
man. 'He  has  succeeded  in  seizing  the  characteristics 
of  all  the  classes  of  English  society.' 

To  the  few  whose  vocation  it  was  to  carry  classical 
studies  into  later  life,  he  held  up  an  ideal  which  differed  in 
several  ways  from  the  ordinary  models.  Although  he  felt 
the  slur  which  had  been  cast  on  his  reputation  as  a  scholar, 
he  returned  with  interest  the  disparagement  of  pedantic 
critics.  Ignorance  of  Greek,  he  thought,  was  more  excus- 
able than  ignorance  of  the  nature  of  language.  '  I  some- 
times think  the  souls  of  the  old  grammarians  must  have 
transmigrated  into  our  verbal  scholars.'  His  method  was 
to  read  the  great  writers  over  and  over  again ;  '  One 
gets  to  know  them  in  this  way  far  better  than  in  reading 
about  them.  I  have  read  Sophocles  hundreds  of  times.' 
"When  he  heard  of  some  one  who  had  a  wonderful  know- 
ledge of  the  commentators  on  Aristotle,  he  said,  'That 
sort  of  learning  is  a  great  power,  if  a  man  can  only 


1854-1860]  Society  in  Scotland  265 

keep  his  mind  above  it.'  His  influence  thus  tended,  at 
this  time  more  than  afterwards,  rather  to  discourage 
extensive  reading.  '  It  is  so  easy  to  give  an  impression 
of  great  learning.  The  power  of  interpretation  is  a 
different  thing.  Every  author  is  best  interpreted  from 
himself.'  He  had  already  formed  the  fixed  opinion, 
which  he  held  to  the  last,  as  to  the  futility  of  conjectural 
emendation.  He  thought  Bekker  had  deserved  more 
of  Greek  Philology  than  Bentley. 

He  was  always  ready  to  read  over  a  friend's  writings 
and  to  criticize  them.  'I  can  do  no  less,'  he  would 
say,  '  for  one  who  has  done  so  much  for  me.'  But  it 
must  be  owned  that  his  gratitude  sometimes  took  rather 
a  trying  shape.  It  was  difficult  not  to  feel  some  con- 
trariety between  the  sanguine  eagerness  with  which  he 
had  encouraged  some  attempt,  and  the  dry  light  of  judge- 
ment which  seemed  apt  to  burn  up  the  thing  attempted. 
And  sometimes,  though  not  often,  what  he  trenchantly 
rejected  has  not  proved  a  failure.  But  when  he 
disapproved  of  a  friend's  work,  on  grounds  of  taste, 
or  even  of  morality,  though  he  expressed  himself  with 
candour,  it  made  no  difference  whatever  in  the  warmth 
and  strength  of  his  attachment.  His  was  a  spirit  which 
always  gave  more  than  it  received. 

He  repeated  his  visits  to  the  Sellars  and  other  friends 
in  Scotland,  amongst  whom  was  Thomas  Erskine,  of 
Linlathen,  a  friend  of  Bishop  Ewing's.  He  was  a 
thoughtful  mystic,  of  great  liberality  of  mind,  and  after 
retiring  from  the  Scottish  Bar,  had  written  several  theo- 
logical essays,  which  had  a  powerful  influence  in 
promoting  the  reaction  against  Calvinism.  He  was 
an  admirer  of  William  Law,  and  F.  D.  Maurice  acknow- 
ledged himself  to  have  derived  something  from  him. 
Jowett  used  to  say  that  his  defect  as  a  religious  leader 


266  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  ix 

was,  that  lie  had  not  set  himself  to  any  great  practical 
effort  for  the  good  of  mankind.  Erskine's  conversation, 
which  from  whatever  point  it  started  always  came  round 
to  his  theological  ideas,  had  a  peculiar  charm.  He  was 
the  sworn  brother  in  matters  spiritual  of  J.  Macleod 
Campbell  of  Row,  who  had  been  ousted  from  the 
Church  of  Scotland  on  account  of  his  opinions  shortly 
after  the  secession  of  Edward  Irving 1.  Campbell's  book 
on  the  Atonement,  in  which  he  sought  by  metaphysical 
argument  to  eliminate  the  crudities  of  current  theology, 
and  justify  the  ways  of  God,  appeared  in  1856,  a  year 
after  Jowett's  St.  Paul ;  and  about  the  same  time  Jowett's 
annual  visits  to  Linlathen  began.  Here  he  also  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Sir  W.  Stirling  Maxwell  of  Keir. 

Henry  Hill  Lancaster  was  settled  in  Edinburgh  as 
an  advocate,  and  was  interested  in  the  North  British 
Review.  Another  Edinburgh  acquaintance  which  he 
greatly  valued  was  that  with  Dr.  John  Brown,  the  author 
of  Rob  and  his  Friends. 

At  St.  Andrews  he  was  introduced  to  Principal  Tulloch, 
then  in  vigorous  youth,  and  to  Professor  Ferrier,  the 
metaphysician,  whose  daughter  was  married  to  Jowett's 
friend  and  pupil  Sir  Alexander  Grant. 

Visits  to  Scotland  were  continued  annually  for  about 
thirty  years ;  and  he  often  expressed  his  admiration 
of  the  country  and  people,  against  whom  he  had  shared 
Dr.  Johnson's  prejudice  in  earlier  days.  At  the  Sellars' 
summer  home,  which  at  this  time  was  Harehead  in 
Yarrow,  he  seems  to  have  relaxed  his  studies  more  than 
elsewhere,  and  a  photographic  group  with  Jowett  in  his 
wide-awake,  playing  croquet  there,  was  extant  a  year  or 
two  ago. 

His  life  in  Oxford  itself  was  not  unrelieved  by  rare 

1  Cf.  the  Duke  of  Argyll's  Preface  to  his  Philosophy  of  Belief  (1095). 


1854-1860]       Mrs.  Cradock's  Rose-garden  267 

intervals  of  social  enjoyment.  The  Greenhills,  before 
settling  at  Hastings,  remained  in  Oxford  for  a  while. 
George  Butler  of  Exeter  had  married,  and  was  for  a  time 
settled  there  with  his  young  wife:  their  house  was 
a  pleasant  centre  of  reunion  for  the  younger  dons. 
Mrs.  Josephine  Butler,  in  her  memoir  of  her  husband,  has 
given  us  her  impression  of  the  Oxford  society  of  that 
day,  with  its  curious  limitations  and  its  intellectual 
interests,  tempered  with  ignorance  of  the  world.  Another 
oasis  in  the  wilderness  of  celibates  was  the  home  of  the 
Principal  of  Brasenose,  Dr.  Cradock,  whose  wife  was  sister- 
in-law  to  Lord  John  Russell.  Mrs.  Cradock  was  a  lady 
of  decided  originality,  and  loved  to  bring  young  people 
together  in  her  drawing-room  and  her  rose-garden. 
A.  P.  Stanley  was  much  at  home  there,  and  brought 
Jowett  with  him  when  he  could.  Charles  Wood  (Lord 
Halifax),  Augustus  Hare,  Charles  Bowen,  and  Lyulph 
Stanley,  then  a  junior  undergraduate,  were  also  frequent 
visitors  at  the  house.  There  was  hymn-singing  on 
Sunday  evenings,  and  little  fetes  champetres  in  summer, 
especially  on  June  18 — Waterloo  day — which  was  the 
genial  hostess's  birthday.  On  these  occasions  Jowett's 
unworldly  simplicity  sometimes  amused  the  younger  men  : 
as  when  he  gave  a  rose  that  had  been  plucked  for  him 
by  one  young  lady  to  another  who  happened  to  have 
none!  Mrs.  Cradock's  young  friends  were  expected  to 
provide  entertainment  for  these  birthday  fetes  by  writing 
short  stories  or  poems.  One  day  when  the  party  were 
driven  in  from  the  garden  by  rain,  these  compositions, 
which  had  been  thrown  into  a  bag,  were  taken  out  at 
random  and  read  aloud.  One  story  greatly  struck  Jowett's 
fancy ;  he  asked  to  be  allowed  to  take  it  home,  and  had 
it  copied. 

It  was  here  that  Jowett  made  some  friendships  which, 


268  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  ix 

like  all  his  friendships,  remained  through  life ;  Lady 
Stanley  of  Alderley,  the  daughters  of  the  Dean  of 
Bristol1,  and  others.  Through  Mrs.  Cradock  he  after- 
wards had  a  meeting  with  Lord  John  Russell,  which 
interested  him  greatly,  and  was  the  first  step  in 
an  acquaintance  with  the  Duke  of  Bedford's  family, 
which  ultimately,  through  other  circumstances,  became 
more  intimate.  Dr.  Symonds,  of  Hill  House,  Clifton, 
was  another  friend  with  whom  he  repeatedly  stayed, 
having  made  his  acquaintance  on  young  J.  A.  Symonds' 
coming  to  Oxford  in  1858.  He  had  casually  met 
Dr.  Symonds  at  a  banquet  in  Magdalen  College,  earlier 
in  the  same  year. 

Jowett  used  to  say  of  Dr.  Symonds,  that  he  was  the 
only  busy  man  who  made  an  agreeable  host,  always 
seeming  at  leisure  for  the  entertainment  of  his  guests. 
He  often  spoke  of  him  as  the  '  beloved  physician.'  About 
the  same  time  he  became  acquainted  with  the  family 
of  Mr.  Nightingale,  of  Embley,  Surrey,  and  Lea  Hurst. 
Derbyshire,  with  whom  he  gradually  formed  a  friendship 
which  continued  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

Through  Stanley  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Grote  (whom  he  afterwards  visited  at  their  country 
house,  Barrow  Green,  in  Kent),  and  had  at  least  one 
interview  with  Dean  Milman. 

His  friendships  were  multiplying.  Grant  could  already 
say  of  him,  '  He  is  the  only  man  who  can  maintain  close 
friendship  with  about  fifty  people  at  once.' 

All  these  threads  were  interwoven  in  his  after  life. 

More  conscious  than  heretofore  of  the  limitations  both 
of  his  circumstances  and  of  his  powers,  he  was  more 
than  ever  determined  to  make  his  mark ;  and  as  he  was 

1  The  Very  Rev.  Gilbert  Elliot. 


1854-1860]  State  of  the  College  269 

thrown  back  upon  Balliol  lie  was  resolved  henceforth 
to  do  what  in  him  lay  to  make  Balliol  great.  He  was 
still  for  some  time  after  this  in  a  minority  amongst  his 
colleagues,  but  the  minority  was  a  strong  one.  With 
Henry  Smith.  "W.  L.  Newman,  and  Charles  Bowen  011 
his  side,  he  felt  confident  that  he  could  fight  his  way. 
And  he  obtained  some  concessions  of  real  importance, 
such  as  the  foundation  of  the  open  Exhibitions  in  1858. 
But  the  contention  was  acute  and  undisguised.  He 
said  to  a  friend  who  was  opposing  some  measure  in 
another  College.  '  Your  Head  seems  to  be  an  astute 
person,  who  works  by  winning  confidence  ;  here  we  have 
a  bare  struggle  for  power.'  Very  rarely,  however,  out 
of  College  meeting,  did  any  resentful  word  escape  him, 
although  he  knew  that  he  was  himself  the  subject 
of  perpetual  obloquy.  Such  words  had  always  reference 
to  the  state  of  the  College.  A  case  of  gambling  had 
been  discovered,  and  it  had  been  treated,  as  he  thought, 
too  lightly.  'I  do  not  know  what  is  to  become  of 
the  College,'  he  said.  He  was  also  concerned  about 
the  selection  of  men  for  entrance.  The  '  old  Master  '  had 
been  used  to  select  men  from  two  classes  ;  first,  those  who 
had  high  connexions,  and,  secondly,  men  of  marked 
ability;  and  by  offering  rooms  to  those  who  did  well 
for  the  Scholarship,  the  Tutors  had  given  the  preponder- 
ance to  the  latter.  Jowett  fancied  that  the  new  Master 
was  departing  from  this  tradition,  but  his  fears  were 
hardly  justified  in  the  sequel ;  this,  however,  was 
largely  due  to  the  attractive  force  of  Jowett' s  own 
personality.  The  silence  which  he  maintained  about  all 
that  concerned  himself,  and  his  indomitable  persistence 
in  doing  what  he  saw  to  be  best  for  his  pupils,  and  for 
the  truth  which  he  held  sacred,  did  not  prevent  his 
judgement  from  being  coloured  to  some  extent  by  his 


270  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  ix 

personal  feeling.  His  remarks  to  private  friends  during 
these  years  had  often  a  tinge  of  bitterness,  but  even  what 
appeared  like  cynicism  was  the  veil  of  deeper  feeling. 
When  told  of  a  young  family  who  were  beginning  life 
with  prospects  of  a  roseate  hue,  he  said, '  Is  life  to  be  all 
art  and  culture  and  music  ? — poor  people,  poor  people ! ' 
The  slight  tone  of  contempt  belied  his  real  sympathy. 
However  pressed  with  occupation,  he  never  turned 
aside  from  helping  those  who  sought  his  assistance, 
reading  and  criticizing  long  ambitious  arguments  in 
MS.,  and  often  hoping  more  from  them  than  the  result 
has  justified. 

Yet  it  was  to  the  interest  he  took  in  other  people's 
writings  that  he  owed  some  of  those  intimate  friendships 
that  were  his  chief  solace  during  the  years  of  gloom. 
After  reading  a  book  in  MS.,  which  had  been  introduced 
to  him,  I  think,  through  Arthur  Clough,  he  said,  'It 
seemed  to  me  as  if  I  had  received  the  impress  of  a  new 
mind.'  Philanthropic  efforts  also  greatly  interested  him, 
and  he  rejoiced  in  any  opportunity  that  brought  them 
within  his  ken.  A  familiar  passage  in  the  Essay  on  Inter- 
pretation having  obvious  reference  to  the  nurses  in  the 
Crimea,  strongly  reflects  this  feeling : — '  And  there  may 
be  some  tender  and  delicate  woman  among  us,  who  feels 
that  she  has  a  Divine  vocation  to  fulfil  the  most  repulsive 
offices  towards  the  dying  inmates  of  a  hospital,  or  the 
soldier  perishing  in  a  foreign  land1.'  How  he  found 
time  for  all  these  interests  is  a  perplexing  thought,  but 
one  thing  which  secured  him  some  degree  of  leisure  was 
his  resolute  avoidance  of  polemical  disputation.  '  There 

1  St.     Paul's     Epistles,     third  thized  in  the  movement  started 

edition,  vol.  ii.  p.  33.    He  visited  in  that  quarter  for  the  relief  of 

Miss  Carpenter's  industrial  school  destitute  incurables, 
at    Bristol,   and   keenly    sympa- 


1854-1860]  Colonization  271 

is  nothing  to  be  done,  but  to  do  nothing,'  was  his  single 
rule  for  meeting  all  attacks. 

His  judgement  on  persons,  then  and  always,  was  wholly 
independent  of  their  opinions  ;  but  not  of  their  conduct. 
Personal  character  counted  with  him  for  much.  For 
R.  Hussey,  Canon  of  Christ  Church,  Stanley's  predecessor 
in  the  Chair  of  Church  History,  who  was  a  consistent 
High  Churchman,  he  had  the  most  unfeigned  respect.  He 
said  of  Canon  F.  C.  Cook  *,  an  opponent  of  Liberalism, 
'  He  is  the  only  person  in  England,  whom  I  have  met,  that 
could  be  called  really  learned.'  He  was  disappointed  in 
Thirlwall,  contrasting  his  attitude  on  leaving  Cambridge 
'  multa  et  praeclara  minantis,'  with  his  episcopal  charges. 
'  A  man  should  not  be  broken  down  with  fifteen  years  of 
being  a  bishop.' 

The  time  had  now  arrived  when  the  opening  of  the 
Fellowships,  the  most  important  factor  in  University 
reform,  was  taking  full  effect.  And  one  result  of  it, 
which  was  cheering  to  Jowett,  was  the  colonizing  of  the 
rest  of  Oxford  by  Balliol  men.  He  took  intense  interest 
in  their  work,  especially  when  they  became  Tutors. 
'  You  will  turn  those  rough  undergraduates  into  First 
Class  men,'  he  used  to  say :  '  You  must  treat  them  very 
much  as  gentlemen,'  and  (perhaps  thinking  of  his  own 
experience)  '  Do  not  assert  your  authority  too  soon  :  let  it 
come  naturally  and  by  degrees.'  Also,  '  Never  speak 
of  their  faults  to  any  but  themselves.  You  are  sure  to 
lose  influence  if  you  do.' 

Three  Balliol  men,  A.  Gr.  "Watson,  "W.  H.  Fremantle, 
and  Godfrey  Lushington,  had  been  elected  Fellows  of  All 
Souls  under  the  reformed  Statute.  But  in  a  year  or  two 
an  attempt  was  made  to  revert  to  the  former  system,  in 
which  birth  and  breeding  were  preferred  to  learning  and 
1  Editor  of  Aids  to  Faith. 


272  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  ix 

ability  as  qualifications  for  election.  The  three  juniors 
fought  hard  to  vindicate  the  spirit  of  the  University  Act, 
and  were  successful  in  doing  so.  Jowett  was  keenly 
interested  in  this  contest,  and  greatly  pleased  with  the 
result,  which  was  obtained  in  1861. 

To  those  of  his  pupils  who  became  parish  clergymen, 
he  gave  advice  which  was  sometimes  ironical,  but  always 
sagacious,  and  kindly  meant.  If  asked  how  to  manage 
one's  parishioners,  he  would  say,  '  Please  every  one, 
and  displease  none.'  He  repeated  the  saying  of  the 
butler  at  Lichfield  Palace,  who,  when  asked  how 
Master  James  Lonsdale  was  getting  on,  had  replied, '  He 
offends  the  people  by  reproving  them  for  drunkenness. 
'E  should  Ja  stuck  to  the  doctrine,  sir,  that  could  do  no 
'arm ! '  Then  without  irony  he  would  say,  '  You  can  do 
good  to  the  poor  by  visiting,  and  to  the  rich  by  society.' 

About  preaching,  he  had  a  more  serious  tone.  '  I  have 
long  thought  about  the  value  of  sermons,  and  I  think 
I  know  it  now.  They  idealize  life  for  us.  But  there 
must  be  more  in  your  discourse  than  mere  morality.  If 
you  give  them  a  moral  essay,  not  a  poor  woman  in  the 
congregation  but  will  feel  that  there  is  something  wrong.' 

In  the  same  spirit  he  wrote  to  James  Lonsdale,  when 
appointed  to  the  preachership  at  Lincoln's  Inn : — 

'  There  is  nothing  by  which  more  good  might  be  done  than 
by  good  preaching.  I  mean  chiefly  :  (i)  The  connexion  of 
religion  with  life,  (2)  The  assertion  of  a  regard  for  truth  as 
a  sort  of  religious  duty — the  spirit  of  truth.  I  hope  you  will 
devote  yourself  to  sermon  writing  ;  no  one  can  succeed  better  ; 
and  don't  be  over  simple  (if  I  may  say  so)  ;  simplicity  is  the 
best  of  faults,  yet  there  is  some  danger  of  mannerism  even 
from  simplicity.' 

He  spoke  with  respect  of  Kenan's  article  on  the  Future 
of  Metaphysic  (Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  Jan.  15,  1860). 


1854-1860]   Plan  of  i  Essays  and  Reviews '         273 

I  have  referred  above  to  an  Essay  on  Interpretation, 
which  had  been  prepared  with  a  view  to  the  second 
edition  of  the  book  on  St.  Paul x.  Having  this  in 
reserve,  Jowett  was  approached  by  the  Rev.  H.  B.  Wilson, 
the  Bampton  Lecturer  of  1851,  once  his  colleague  in  the 
Examinership,  who  desired  a  contribution  from  him  to 
a  volume,  in  which  theological  subjects  should  be  freely 
handled  in  a  becoming  spirit. 

Henry  Bristowe  "Wilson  was  a  man  of  great  elevation 
of  character,  and  of  an  extraordinarily  keen  and  pene- 
trative mind,  who,  after  serving  his  College  and  the 
University  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  had  taken  a 
St.  John's  living,  the  Yicarage  of  Great  Staughton, 
Huntingdonshire,  in  the  year  1850.  The  widening 
of  theological  opinion  and  of  Christian  communion  was 
thenceforward  the  main  interest  of  his  life.  The 
concluding  passage  of  his  essay  finely  expresses  the 
restrained  fervour  and  intense  spiritual  thoughtfulness 
which  characterized  him.  Those  who  read  it  here  will 
think  it  strange  that  it  should  have  been  made  the  ground 
of  a  condemnation  which,  though  afterwards  reversed, 
suspended  him  from  his  office  for  a  year : — 

'  The  Christian  Church  can  only  tend  on  those  who  are 
committed  to  its  care,  to  the  verge  of  that  abyss  which  parts 
this  world  from  the  world  unseen.  Some  few  of  those  fostered 
by  her  are  now  ripe  for  entering  on  a  higher  career  ;  the  many 
are  but  rudimentary  spirits,  germinal  souls.  What  shall 
become  of  them  ?  If  we  look  abroad  in  the  world  and  regard 
the  neutral  character  of  the  multitude,  we  are  at  a  loss  to 
apply  to  them,  either  the  promises,  or  the  denunciations  of 
Kevelation.  So,  the  wise  heathens  could  anticipate  a  reunion 

1  p.  251.  The  first  hint  of  such  and  it  will  perhaps  have  two 
an  essay  occurs  in  a  letter  to  subordinate  essays,  on  the  Critical 
Stanley  in  the  autumn  of  1847  :  Study  of  Scripture,  and  on  the 
'I  find  that  St.  John  expands,  relation  of  Faith  to  Knowledge.' 

VOL.   I.  T 


274  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  ix 

with  the  great  and  good  of  all  ages  ;  they  could  represent 
to  themselves,  at  least  in  a  figurative  manner,  the  punishment 
and  the  purgatory  of  the  wicked  ;  but  they  would  not  expect 
the  reappearance  in  another  world,  for  any  purpose,  of  a 
Thersites,  or  an  Hyperboles — social  and  poetical  justice  had 
been  sufficiently  done  upon  them.  Yet  there  are  such  as 
these,  and  no  better  than  these,  under  the  Christian  name — 
babblers,  busy-bodies,  livers  to  get  gain,  and  mere  eaters  and 
drinkers.  The  Eoman  Church  has  imagined  a  limbus  infantium  • 
we  must  rather  entertain  a  hope  that  there  shall  be  found, 
after  the  great  adjudication,  receptacles  suitable  for  those  who 
shall  be  infants,  not  as  to  years  of  terrestrial  life,  but  as  to 
spiritual  development — nurseries,  as  it  were,  and  seed  grounds, 
where  the  undeveloped  may  grow  up  under  new  conditions — 
the  stunted  may  become  strong,  and  the  perverted  be  restored. 
And  when  the  Christian  Church  in  all  its  branches  shall  have 
fulfilled  its  sublunary  office,  and  its  Founder  shall  have  sur- 
rendered His  kingdom  to  the  great  Father — all,  both  small  and 
great,  shall  find  a  refuge  in  the  bosom  of  the  Universal  Parent, 
to  repose,  or  be  quickened  into  higher  life,  in  the  ages  to  come, 
according  to  His  Will.' 

The  remaining  contributors  to  the  volume  were  Rowland 
Williams,  Vice-Principal  of  Lampeter  College,  the  author 
of  a  work  on  Rational  Godliness1,  a  man  of  genius, 
somewhat  dangerously  blent  with  Celtic  fire,  whose 
essay  was  on  Bunsen's  Biblical  Researches ;  Baden 
Powell,  the  mathematician,  who  had  written  an  essay  on 
Theism  for  the  Burnett  Prize,  and  now  wrote  on  Christian 
Evidences  ;  Mark  Pattison,  who  described  eighteenth- 
century  Theology,  and  C.  W.  Goodwin,  the  only  layman 
of  the  seven,  whose  subject  was  the  Mosaic  Cosmogony. 

One  valuable  trace  of  the  negotiations  by  which  the 
work  was  arranged,  appears  in  a  letter  of  Jowett's  to 
Stanley,  inviting  him  to  contribute : — 

1  It  was  reviewed,  with  Jowett  and  Stauley  on  St.  Paul,  in  the 
Quarterly  Review  for  October,  1855  ('  The  Neology  of  the  Cloister '). 


1854-1860]         Stanley  is  asked  to  join  275 


'CHESTNUT  HILL,  KESWICK, 

August  15,  1858. 

'  Wilson  wishes  me  to  write  to  you  respecting  a  volume  of 
Theological  Essays  which  he  has  already  mentioned,  the  object 
of  which,  however,  he  thinks  he  has  not  clearly  set  before 
you,  trusting  to  my  being  at  Oxford,  &c. 

'  The  persons  who  have  already  joined  in  the  plan  are  Wilson. 
E.  Williams  of  King's,  Pattison,  Grant  *,  Temple,  Mtiller,  if 
he  has  time,  and  myself.  The  object  is  to  say  what  we  think 
freely  within  the  limits  of  the  Church  of  England.  A  notice 
will  be  prefixed  that  no  one  is  responsible  for  any  notions  but 
his  own.  It  is,  however,  an  essential  part  of  the  plan  that 
names  shall  be  given,  partly  for  the  additional  weight  which  the 
articles  will  have  if  the  authors  are  known,  and  also  from 
the  feeling  that  on  such  subjects  as  theology  it  is  better  not 
to  write  anonymously.  We  do  not  wish  to  do  anything  rash 
or  irritating  to  the  public  or  the  University,  but  we  are 
determined  not  to  submit  to  this  abominable  system  of  terror- 
ism, which  prevents  the  statement  of  the  plainest  facts,  and 
makes  true  theology  or  theological  education  impossible. 
Pusey  and  his  friends  are  perfectly  aware  of  your  opinions, 
and  the  Dean's,  and  Temple's  and  Mtiller's,  but  they  are 
determined  to  prevent  your  expressing  them.  I  do  not  deny 
that  in  the  present  state  of  the  world  the  expression  of  them 
is  a  matter  of  great  nicety  and  care,  but  is  it  possible  to  do  any 
good  by  a  system  of  reticence  ?  For  example,  I  entirely  agree 
with  you  that  no  greater  good  could  be  accomplished  for  religion 
and  morality  than  the  abolition  of  all  subscriptions ;  but  how 
will  this  ever  be  promoted  in  the  least  degree,  or  how  will  it 
be  possible  for  any  one  in  high  station  ever  to  propose  it,  if 
we  only  talk  it  over  in  private  ?  We  shall  talk  A.  D.  1868. 
I  want  to  point  out  that  the  object  is  not  to  be  attained  by  any 
anonymous  writing. 

'  As  it  is  good  to  look  at  things  on  all  sides,  I  don't  object 

1  Grant's  Indian  appointment  prevented  him  from  carrying  out 
his  intention  of  contributing. 

T  2 


276  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  ix 

to  Mrs.  Stanley  or  Mrs.  Vaughan,  if  she  is  in  Oxford,  applying 
the  fable  of  the  fox  who  has  lost  his  tail. 

'  I  don't  write  so  often  as  I  once  did,  but  am  not  the  less 
truly  your  sincere  and  affectionate  friend.' 

Stanley  disapproved  of  the  policy  of  such  an  open  alli- 
ance, and  Jowett,  in  persevering  with  it,  acted  against  his 
friend's  advice.  As  he  told  Dr.  Symonds  of  Clifton 1,  he 
strongly  felt  the  duty  of  continuing  his  efforts  to  clear  the 
minds  of  his  countrymen  from  religious  prejudices.  He 
determined,  therefore,  to  complete  his  Essay  and  to  send 
it  in.  He  also  obtained  the  adhesion  of  Dr.  Temple,  whose 
University  sermon  on  the  Education  of  the  "World  lay  in 
the  direction  indicated,  and  when  preached  had  given  no 
offence,  escaping  even  the  suspicion  of  heresy,  except,  it 
is  said,  in  the  mind  of  Dr.  Hawkins,  the  keen-scented 
Provost  of  Oriel.  Dr.  John  Muir  of  Edinburgh,  the 
Sanskrit  scholar,  was  a  zealous  promoter  of  the  scheme. 

Jowett  was  hampered  with  the  accumulation  of  many 
duties :  he  said  one  day  to  a  friend,  with  momentary 
impatience, '  I  ought  not  to  have  so  much  to  do ' :  but 
if  he  could  only  get  to  the  seaside  for  a  few  weeks 
together,  he  thought  he  might  make  a  good  thing  of  this 
piece  of  writing.  He  was  working  at  it  during  a  visit 
to  the  Tennysons  in  the  winter  of  1859,  and  wrote  one 
passage  at  least,  that  on  the  Parables,  at  Milford  Vicarage, 
Hampshire 2,  where  he  talked  anxiously  over  this  and  other 
schemes.  At  one  moment  he  turned  suddenly  and  asked 
his  hostess,  '  Can  the  truth  do  harm  ?  '  On  her  replying, 
'  It  can  surely  do  no  harm  to  tell  the  truth,'  he  said, '  That 
is  the  verdict  of  the  simple  mind.'  Not  that  he  had 
fully  calculated  on  the  storm  which  followed,  but  he  was 
apprehensive  of  some  misunderstanding,  and  he  desired 

1  Life  of  J.  A.  Symonds,  vol.  i.  2  I  was  then  Vicar  of  Mil- 
p.  188.  ford.-  L.  C. 


Letters,  1854-1860  277 

to  make  his  own  position  clear1.  The  book  appeared 
in  March,  1860.  He  wrote  to  me  quite  simply,  on  April  6, 
'  I  am  glad  that  you  like  the  volume  of  Essays.' 

Henry  Smith  remarked  soon  afterwards,  with  reference 
to  the  enterprise,  which  he  appears  to  have  watched  with 
some  misgiving,  '  The  stone  has  sunk  quietly  into  the 
waters  after  all.' 


LETTEES,  1854-1860. 

To  F.  T.  PALGBAVE. 

HARROW,  April  7,  1854. 

I  cannot  but  write  to  thank  you  for  your  most 
kind  note.  It  is  the  last  thing  I  should  have  imagined 
that  you  were  indifferent  to  the  event  of  last  Tuesday.  You 
and  a  few  others  (if  you  will  excuse  my  saying  so)  have 
a  ridiculous  opinion  of  what  I  am  and  can  do,  but  though 
I  am  aware  of  this,  I  must  always  feel  deeply  grateful  for 
the  affection  you  show.  .  .  .  The  event  of  Tuesday,  about 
which  you  speak  so  kindly,  is  a  little  hard  upon  me.  .  .  .  But 
while  I  can  keep  the  regard  of  my  pupils,  I  shall  stay  on 
and  do  the  utmost  I  can,  though  I  cannot  but  feel  sadly  at 
having  lost  a  position  that  in  this  world  seemed  all  I  could 
desire. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

BALLIOL,  April  12,  1854. 

I  will  not  trouble  you  any  more  with  the  hateful  subject 
of  the  Balliol  election. 

1  He  wrote  in  1861 :  '  The  hension  of  your  readers.'  Cf. 
great  difficulty  in  writing  is  to  Autobiography  of  F.  P.  Cobbe, 
adapt  your  thoughts  to  the  appre-  vol.  i.  p.  349. 


278  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  ix 

.  .  .  On  Monday  we  had  another  meeting  at  Macaulay's.  He 
talked  again  about  the  Oxford  Bill  —  said  the  debate  was  as  dull 
as  possible,  that  the  Ministry  were  going  to  give  up  the  certifi- 
cate clauses,  and  declaimed  against  Whewell's  bigotry  ;  gave  an 
amusing  account  of  what  he  called  Lord  Rutherford's  conversion 
by  being  taken  to  Trinity  College  Chapel,  illustrative  of  the 
effect  on  the  minds  of  Dissenters  of  so  many  hundred  surplices. 
His  conversation  does  not  give  you  a  high  idea  of  his  intellect. 
He  strikes  one  rather  as  a  fine  old  fellow,  very  hearty  and  simple, 
but  'excellent  at  monologue,'  with  a  most  sincere  and  genuine 
pleasure  in  hearing  himself  talk.  In  power  of  mind  he  is 
very  inferior  to  Gladstone,  but  more  straightforward,  with  110 
'ins  and  outs.'  On  the  whole  the  Commission  has  prospered 
greatly  thus  far.  We  have  agreed  to  leave  the  age  for  exit 
from  Haileybury  twenty-three,  and  only  to  require  six  months' 
residence  there,  which  will  open  the  Indian  service  to  the 
Universities.  Macaulay  does  not  believe  that  any  University 
men  will  be  found  to  go.  He  would  rather  be  a  serving  man 
himself, 

dvftpl  Trap'  a.KXrjpa>  .  .  . 

KaTa<pdifji(voi(nv 


i.  e.  be  Governor  General. 

A  large  work  of  Pusey  v.  Vaughan  2  has  appeared. 

I  still  look  forward  to  some  happy  time  when  you  and  I  and 
Temple  may  be  working  together  at  Oxford.  Many  thanks 
more  than  I  can  express  for  your  deep  affection  and  sympathy 
for  me. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

BALLIOL,  July  n,  1854. 

.  .  .  How  many  things  have  happened  since  we  met,  though 
only  three  months  ago.  I  am  delighted  at  the  abolition  of 
tests,  which  is  a  real  good  and  rests  the  University  on  a  solid 
national  foundation,  independent  of  Church,  Ministries,  &c. 
Notwithstanding  the  great  number  who  signed  the  petition1 

1  'Under  a  poor  master  .  .  .  than  Teaching  ;  see  Life  of  E.  B.  Pusey, 

lord  it  over  the  people   of  the  vol.  iii.  pp.  386-388. 

dead.'  —  Horn.  Odyss.  xi.  490.  3  Against  the  abolition  of  tests. 

8  Collegiate     and     Professorial 


Letters,  1854-1860  279 

I  believe  that  people  are  already  a  good  deal  softened,  and  in  a 
few  months  will  have  shifted  to  a  new  point  of  view.  Gladstone 
is  a  great  peacemaker.  At  present  they  busy  themselves  with 
the  hope  that  by  enforcing  a  very  strict  system  of  chapels,  &c., 
they  will  be  able  to  exclude  Dissenters  from  the  Colleges. 

If  you  are  not  likely  to  be  in  town  next  week,  will  you  be  at 
Canterbury  in  the  middle  of  August  ?  I  cannot  tell  you  how 
strongly  the  isolation  in  which  I  feel  myself  here  makes  me 
turn  to  you  and  Temple  and  the  few  true  and  warm  friends 
of  my  own  standing  whom  I  have  elsewhere.  If  I  could  begin 
life  again  it  should  not  be  in  a  College. 


To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

[October?  1854.] 

To  hear  from  you  reminds  me  of  old  times  which  I  wish 
I  could  recall,  when  you  and  I  and  Temple  were  Tutors  here 
together.  '  Omnes  composui — felices  !  nunc  ego  resto.' 

There  seems  to  be  little  hope  of  good  from  the  new  Heb- 
domadal Board.  It  is  said  to  be  the  general  intention  to  vote 
for  as  many  Heads  as  possible,  e.  g.  three  for  Professors,  four  for 
Masters,  besides  their  own  six.  That  is  to  say  in  other  words, 
the  worst  Heads  are  to  be  elected  with  a  view  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  best  Professors.  Such  a  Board  will  throw  eveiy  impedi- 
ment in  the  way  of  a  Commission.  It  seems  that  the  admission 
of  Dissenters,  who  will  be  excluded  by  every  means  it  is  possible 
to  devise,  has  led  to  this  result.  This  is  a  weary  place,  in  which 
little  good  is  effected  by  much  pains  and  thought.  I  bury 
myself  in  my  book  and  pupils.  .  .  . 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

[January  ?  1855.] 

Your  letters  are  a  great  pleasure  and  comfort  to  me.  I  shall 
try  to  follow  your  advice  and  bury  all  animosities  towards 
everybody. 

Yet  allow  me  to  make  a  philosophical  reflection.  What 
a  bad  school  for  character  a  College  is  !  so  narrow  and  artificial, 


280  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  ix 

such  a  soil  for  maggots  and  crotchets  of  all  sorts,  fostering 
a  sort  of  weak  cleverness,  but  greatly  tending  to  impair 
manliness,  straightforwardness,  and  other  qualities  which  are 
met  with  in  the  great  world.  A  man  said  to  me  the  other 
day,  '  How  very  unworldly  a  friend  of  ours  is,'  which  meant 
that  he  was  disposed  to  lose  the  best  years  of  his  life  between 
twenty-three  and  twenty-eight  in  reading  poetry  and  dreaming 
about  philosophy.  .  .  . 

To  go  to  another  subject.  It  has  occurred  to  me  several 
times  lately  that  I  have  been  inconsiderate  in  trying  to  press 
upon  you  opinions  and  ways  of  life  that,  whether  right  or 
wrong,  were  natural  to  me,  but  not  natural  to  you.  I  re- 
member your  writing  to  me  about  this  in  September,  1849  '• 
Afterwards  I  wanted  you  to  come  to  Oxford  and  help  a 
scheme  for  poor  students.  I  entirely  see  now  that  it  was 
a  mistake2.  . 


To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

[1855-] 

I  do  not  propose  my  rule  of  proceeding  with  the  Puseyites 
for  anybody  else.  I  only  allude  to  the  subject  again  to 
explain  that  I  wish  them  to  have  entire  toleration,  but  I  do  not 
wish  to  act  with  them  because  I  think  the  union  hollow  and 
false.  They  will  be  too  much  for  me  and  I  shall  get  nothing 
out  of  them. 

Certainly  I  desire  also  to  remember  that  there  will  come 
a  time  when  all  these  differences  will  have  an  end,  and  that  in 
some  way,  we  know  not  how,  those  who  have  any  shadow 
of  love  or  truth  will  be  transfigured  into  His  image.  But 
I  wish  to  wait  for  another  world  before  joining  in  a  closer 
union  with  them. 

I  write  this  in  a  reading-room  at  Folkestone,  where  I  took  up 
the  Record.  There  were  two  articles  in  it ;  the  first  on  Miss 
Stanley  and  Miss  Nightingale,  explaining  that  the  Record 
had  done  the  latter  injustice,  and  that  it  was  still  willing  to 
do  Miss  Stanley  injustice.  Then  followed  an  article  on 

1  p.  166.     Cf.  Letters  of  Dean  Stanley,  p.  137.  2  p.  212. 


Letters,   1854-1860  281 

Mr.  Stanley  and  Mr.  Jowett,  setting  forth  that  the  former 
was  bad,  but  the  latter  worse,  and  that  the  former  was 
implicated  in  the  sins  of  the  latter.  Kemember  me  to  your 
sister.  Though  I  protested  above  that  I  wished  to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  Puseyites,  I  was  glad  to  see  my  name 
honoured  by  being  on  the  same  page  with  hers. 

Pascal  does  not  clear  up  to  me.  His  evidences  of  Christianity 
are  only  for  those  whom  he  can  first  bring  into  that  state  of 
spiritual  desolation  in  which  he  finds  himself.  It  appears  only 
during  the  last  five  years  of  his  life  that  he  had  any  deep 
religious  feeling. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

[July?  1855.] 

Yesterday  I  was  at  Fox  How  and  spent  the  day  with 
Mrs.  Arnold,  who  sent  her  love  to  you.  It  was  a  great  plea- 
sure to  me  to  see  the  place  again  in  which  he  lived.  I  think  the 
thing  which  interested  me  most  was  that  old  portrait  of  Arnold 
as  a  young  man  in  the  dining-room,  which  has  a  strong 
resemblance  to  Tom  :  also  more  of  the  fierceness  of  untamed 
youth  than  is  traceable  in  his  later  years. 

Mrs.  Arnold  seemed  very  happy  and  cheerful,  but  I  was 
soriy  to  see  her  looking  so  aged  ;  it  is  ten  years  since  I  saw  her 
last,  and  she  has  become,  as  she  called  herself,  an  old  woman 
in  the  interval. 

...  I  have  brought  your  book  with  me,  which  I  am  reading 
with  great  pleasure.  Two  criticisms  I  have  heard  made  on  it 
by  one  who  had  a  great  value  for  it :  first,  that  it  was  in 
places  too  rhetorical,  and  that  there  was  too  great  an  absence 
of  doctrinal  statements.  The  first  criticism  I  agree  in,  and  if 
I  may  venture  to  give  a  judgement  in  such  a  matter,  I  would 
be  glad  if  you  would  tone  down  your  style  in  the  new  book ', 
because  it  would  be  more  effective  with  rather  more  of  the 
'ars  celare  artem.'  The  pleasantest  picture  loses  its  beauty 
when  it  does  not  seem  'to  come  sweetly  from  nature.' 
I  am  not  quite  a  fair  critic  in  the  matter,  because  I  feel  that 

1  i.  e.  Sinai  and  Palestine. 


282  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  ix 

my  dreamy,  hazy  suggestions  of  things  are  not  to  be  compared 
with  the  good,  substantial,  bright  colours  in  which  you 
present  them. 

To  MBS.  GREENHILL. 

BALLIOL,  October  21, 1855. 

I  have  not  answered  your  kind  note  because  I  have  been 
overwhelmed  with  work  during  the  last  three  weeks,  and 
I  wished  to  sit  down  and  feast  upon  the  congratulations l 
which  I  have  received,  and  answer  them  at  leisure.  Con- 
gratulations is  a  bad  word,  because  it  is  supposed  to  mean 
nothing,  and  I  am  sure  the  letters  that  were  addressed  to 
me  meant  something,  viz.  the  attachment  of  a  great  many 
warm-hearted  persons  to  me,  for  which  I  cannot  be  too  grateful 
both  to  them  and  to  Providence  who  has  given  me  such  friends. 
They  make  me  half  believ6  what  the  Dean  of  Wells 2  said  to  me 
the  other  day  :  '  You  have  the  sympathy  of  everybody.' 

I  ought  to  except  your  friends,  the  Heads  of  Houses,  with 
whom,  however,  I  wish  to  be  on  peaceable  terms.  I  sincerely 
pity  them,  for  they  are  fallen  on  evil  days.  And  you  will 
observe  that  we  have  now  got  two  trusty  reformers  among  the 
Heads,  in  the  Dean  of  Christ  Church  (Liddell),  and  in  the  Provost 
of  Queen's  (Thomson).  The  first  is  one  of  the  most  able 
and  most  honest  men  living,  quite  free  from  Christ  Church  or 
any  other  prejudices.  His  first  act  has  been  to  abolish  the 
Servitors,  whom  he  intends  to  convert  into  Exhibitioners.  He 
has  been  very  kind  to  me  about  the  Professorship :  not  that 
I  asked  him,  but  of  his  own  accord  he  took  great  pains  and 
trouble  about  it. 

I  wish  Arnold  were  alive :  how  gladly  we  would  have 
welcomed  him,  if  he  had  settled  amongst  us  ! 

To  A  FRIEND  ON  A  CONVERSION  TO  THE  ROMAN 

CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 

1856. 

I  am  indeed  sorry  to  hear  that  your  thoughts  have  been  occu- 
pied by  a  painful  subject.  Think  of  it  as  it  will  be  a  year  hence 

1  On  the  Greek  Professorship.  *  G.  H.  S.  Johnson. 


Letters,  1854-1860  283 

and  as  it  will  seem  in  another  world  when  these  miserable 
divisions  will  have  passed  away,  and  keep  it  to  yourselves  and 
God.  The  greatest  possible  allowance  must  be  made  for  things 
done  or  said  by  persons  in  a  half-distracted  state  of  mind. 
How  it  is,  as  I  have  seen  it,  that  the  best  persons  pass  into 
such  states  of  mind,  is  a  great  mystery  ;  yet  their  Heaven  may 
clear  before  they  die,  and  we  may  be  perfectly  reconciled  to  see 
them  such  as  God  has  pleased  or  allowed  them  to  be.  .  .  . 

It  is  a  part  of  the  illusion  that  converts  to  a  new  faith  do 
not  feel  the  pain  that  they  cause  to  others.  Happy  for  them, 
I  think,  that  it  is  so — or  they  would  break  down  under  the 
conflict. 

The  mind  is  so  abstracted  and  so  perfectly  at  rest  that 
they  cannot  admit  any  distracting  thought.  Does  not  this 

seem  to  have  been  the  case  with  the  first  Christians  ?  .  .  .  . 

i 

To  SIB  ALEXANDER  GRANT. 

DEARGRAXT, 

I  was  sorry  to  observe  in  the  Illustrated  London  News 
to-day  a  mention  of  the  death  of  your  father. 

I  am  afraid  this  event  is  a  great  trouble  to  you  and 
Lady  Grant,  more  especially  as  you  had  seen  little  of  him 
of  late  years.  Do  not  let  this  grieve  you.  Family  trials 
frequently  cannot  be  avoided.  I  do  not  think  accidents  of 
this  sort  should  increase  sorrow.  Death  is  an  aweful  thing, 
about  which  our  greatest  comfort  must  ever  be  that  the 
departed  are  in  the  hands  of  God,  to  be  judged  not  by  the 
pedantry  of  divines  on  earth,  but  by  the  larger  rules  of 
His  mercy.  It  seems  to  me  wrong  and  foolish  to  dwell  much 
on  anything  but  this.  There  is  nothing  probably  that  those 
who  are  gone  would  less  wish  than  that  we  should  recall 
painful  recollections. 

To  yourself  I  think  the  succession  to  the  Baronetcy  a  great 
good.  Many  persons  say  that  rank  is  a  misfortune  without 
wealth.  This  is  not  true.  There  are  three  kinds  of  goods,  as 
our  friend  Aristotle  would  say,  rank,  wealth,  and  talent.  It 
seems  to  me  that  a  man  may  do  well  with  two  out  of  the 
three.  With  the  last  only,  life  is  a  painful  struggle. 


284  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  ix 

Your  book1  is  often  in  my  mind.  I  hope  it  has  prospered 
during  the  vacation.  But  if  not,  do  not  be  discouraged. 
Nothing  seems  to  me  more  uncertain  than  composition.  One 
month  a  good  harvest  is  reaped  :  the  next  all  barren.  In  these 
fits  and  starts,  with  much  pain  and  melancholy  I  calculate 
that  I  accomplish  somewhat  less  than  half  of  what  I  always 
intend.  Whether  you  accomplish  the  work  six  months  sooner 
or  later  must  depend  on  health  and  many  other  causes.  I  feel 
confident  that  you  will  succeed  at  last. 

This  letter  is  nothing,  yet  I  send  it  because  I  do  not  want 
you,  who  have  shown  such  warm  sympathy  and  kindness  for 
me,  to  suppose  that  I  can  be  forgetful  of  you  at  any  crisis 
of  your  life. 

Ever  yours  affectionately, 

B.  JOWETT. 

To  JOHN  NICHOL. 

August  22,  1856. 

.  .  .  The  subject  of  the  Stanhope  Essay  is  'The  Life  and 
Place  of  Wycliffe  as  a  Eeformer.' 

You  could  not  have  a  more  interesting  subject.  The  books 
about  it  you  probably  know  better  than  I  do. 

.  .  .  Great  reformers  are  generally  misrepresented  when  the 
world  has  settled  down  into  a  calm.  Mankind  are  afraid  to 
acknowledge  how  wild  and  fierce  they  were.  I  expect  you  will 
find  Wycliffe  to  have  been  a  kind  of  'Socialist,'  as  a  man 
whose  mind  was  turned  loose  upon  Scripture  might  very  well 
become,  especially  in  an  age  when  the  division  of  ranks  was  so 
strongly  marked.  The  rebellious  spirits  of  the  Middle  Ages 
are  a  strange  phenomenon. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

DOVEB,  1856. 

I  took  up  the  Record  at  the  reading-rooms  to-day ;  it 
points  out  for  the  edification  of  the  Ministry  that  Providence 
whitewashed  then*  misdoings  by  two  large  majorities  imme- 
diately after  the  Sunday  bands  were  put  an  end  to.  '  I  had 

1  Edition  of  Aristotle's  Ethics. 


Letters,  1854-1860  285 

rather  believe  all  the  fables  in  the  Talmud  and  Alkoran  than 
this.'  ...  I  think  Arnold  was  dangerous  in  the  sense  that  every 
man  is  dangerous.  Arnold's  peculiar  danger  was  not  knowing 
the  world  and  character — not  knowing  where  his  ideas  would 
take  other  people,  and  ought  to  take  himself.  Yet  had  he 
been  living,  how  we  would  have  nestled  under  his  wings  ! 

To  MES.  STANLEY. 

December,  1856. 

I  write  to  thank  you  for  your  kind  note.  Shall  I  con- 
gratulate you  ?  It  is  no  great  matter  as  a  preferment  for 
him,  but  I  congratulate  myself  three  times  a  day.  Yet  it 
is  also  a  matter  of  congratulation  to  you  that  he  is  in  the 
right  niche — a  place  in  which  he  can  build  up  a  reputation 
worth  many  bishoprics.  As  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory, he  may  have  an  influence  on  the  English  Church  which 
no  bishop  has  ever  exercised  or  can  exercise.  And  therefore, 
though  stripped  of  some  of  the  accidents  of  greatness  and  with- 
out the  sweet  sound  of  'my  Lord/  I  do  not  think  he  could  be 
better  off  than  he  is. 

Of  course  he  will  keep  the  Canonry  at  Canterbury  until 
Dr.  Barnes,  who  is  now  about  eighty-six,  sleeps  with  his  fathers. 
I  do  not  know  whether  he  would  care  to  have  a  permanent 
abode  at  Oxford  at  present ;  if  so,  he  could  probably  have 
Mr.  Butler's  house,  one  of  the  few  habitations  convenient  and 
suitable  for  him. 

We  will  give  him  a  welcome  such  as  shall  gladden  you. 

To  F.  T.  PALGRAVE. 

December  4,  1857. 

Many  thanks  for  your  kind  present,  which  was  most 
welcome  to  me,  both  for  the  sake  of  the  giver  and  the  beauty 
of  the  work  itself.  It  seems  to  me  as  though  I  had  not  seen 
you  for  an  immense  time.  .  .  . 

I  have  now  got  three  works  of  A[lbert]  D[urer].  My  ambition 
is  next  to  possess  a  little  landscape  of  Eembrandt.  All  the 
ideas  I  have  about  art  I  learnt  from  you,  though  you  have  not 
much  reason  to  be  satisfied  with  my  proficiency.  A  little  real 


286  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  ix 

pleasure  I  get  from  it,  whether  to  be  set  in  the  scale  against 
a  good  dinner  I  do  not  know.  Certainly  not  against  an  opera  or 
oratorio  of  Handel. 

You  should  have  tried  for  the  Balliol  Scholarship  this  year. 
Our  subject  for  English  Essay  was  'Whether  a  good  artist 
must  also  be  a  good  man.' 

To    MRS.    GrREENHILL. 

KNELLER  HALL,  ISLEWORTH, 

Christmas  Day,  [1857]. 

It  is  extremely  kind  of  you  to  write  and  ask  me  to  come  and 
stay  with  you.  Alas !  I  fear  the  visions  of  going  to  Eome 
have  melted  into  thin  air.  I  have  engaged  to  take  some 
undergraduates  this  vacation,  with  the  view  if  possible  of 
keeping  them  to  their  work. 

Therefore  I  fear  I  must  put  off  until  Easter  or  the  summer  the 
pleasure  of  coming  to  see  you.  Give  my  love  to  Kate,  who 
I  hope  is  becoming  an  accomplished  young  lady,  and  tell 
her  not  to  forget  me  until  then.  I  wonder  whether  she  is 
up  to  writing  a  letter  to  me  yet.  My  little  godson  is,  I  sup- 
pose, grown  and  more  entertaining  than  when  I  last  saw  him. 

Oxford  is  at  last  beginning  to  stir  itself  and  set  its  house  in 
order.  During  the  last  part  of  the  Term  we  were  very  busy  at 
Balliol  with  a  scheme  of  reform  which  has  just  received 
the  consent  of  the  Visitor,  and  will,  as  we  hope,  shortly  become 
law1.  It  is  charming  to  see  the  way  in  which  the  anti- 
reformers  change  their  opinions,  and  a  great  satisfaction 
to  have  been  a  'republican  of  the  day  before.'  Everybody 
seems  to  be  discovering  that  the  founder  after  all  is  only 
the  ghost  of  a  founder. 

To  F.  T.  PALGRAVE. 

October  24,  1858. 

'  I  will  be  guilty  of  this  sin  no  longer 2, '  and  only  hope  you 
will  not  measure  the  value  I  set  on  the  gift  by  the  apparent 

1  pp.  258,  269.    The  Balliol  or-  2  Shakespeare,  i  Henry  IV,  ii.  4. 

dinance  of  the  Executive  Com-  It   was    a    favourite    phrase    of 

mission   of  1854  was  issued  in  Jowett's,  and,  as  often  happened 

1857.  in  quotations,  was  applied  by  him 


Letters,  1854-1860  287 

thanklessness  of  not  answering  your  letter.  The  St.  Paul l 
seems  to  me  to  be  a  very  fine  work,  which  I  am  extremely  glad 
to  possess.  I  like  particularly  the  style  in  which  you  have 
mounted  it ;  it  hangs  over  the  mantelpiece  in  the  outer  room. 
I  hope  that  you  will  soon  come  and  pay  a  visit  to  it. 

Shall  I  offer  a  criticism  on  the  St.  Paul,  a  very  general 
one  ?  I  think  I  would  have  thrown  into  it  more  of  unrest 
and  perturbation  of  feeling — at  any  rate  more  trace  of  the 
struggle  and  conquest  over  it.  The  2  Cor.  xii,  xiii,  i  Cor. 
ix,  Gal.  vi.  17,  2  Tim.  iv.  5-8  would  express  what  I  mean. 
But  I  am  not  sure  whether  it  would  be  possible  to  make  so 
great  a  departure  from  conventional  ideas  on  the  subject. 

My  book  is  nearly  all  printed,  but  is  at  present  interrupted 
for  Homer,  in  which  I  find  great  delight. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

TENBY,  Friday.  March,  18^0. 
MY  DEAR  STANLEY, 

I  write  to  you  as  one  of  my  dearest  and  oldest  friends 
to  tell  you  that  my  dear  father  has  been  taken  from  us. 
He  died  peacefully  after  about  a  fortnight's  illness,  and  I 
believe  without  pain  to  himself. 

He  was  one  of  the  best  men  I  ever  knew,  perfectly  guileless 
and  childlike,  and  would  have  been  one  of  the  happiest,  if  life 
could  have  been  spent  only  in  doing  kindnesses  to  others. 
Though  possessed  of  considerable  ability  and  very  great  activity 
of  mind,  he  was  entirely  ignorant  of  the  world  and  of  business, 
in  some  respects  like  a  child  throughout  life. 

There  is  no  need  of  knowledge  of  the  world  or  of  business 
where  he  is  now. 

My  mother  and  sister  are  better  than  I  could  have  expected, 
and  have  borne  up  and  are  borne  up  under  this  great  blow. 

The  post  is  just  going  out. 

Ever  yours  affectionately, 

B.  JOWETT. 

without    any   reference    to    the      trick  of  association  had  taken 

original  meaning  and  connexion      his  fancy. 

of  the  words,  which  through  some          *  Woolner's  relief,  pp.  233,289. 


288  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  ix 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

TENBY,  March  10,  1859. 

I  write  to  thank  you  for  your  most  kind  letter,  which  was 
a  great  comfort  and  good  to  me  as  far  as  words  could  be. 

We  have  experienced  the  greatest  kindness  here  from 
very  many  persons.  The  Eector  told  me  that  it  was  the 
impression  of  the  whole  place  'that  a  good  man  had  passed 
away.' 

I  make  no  progress  with  my  book,  for  my  mind  seems  dried 
up.  I  have  written  what  would  make  above  100  pages  of 
print  for  the  two  last  essays  of  the  second  volume  (all  the  rest 
is  printed),  but  the  form  of  it  is  not  good,  and  just  at  present 
I  feel  incapable  of  putting  it  into  a  better.  I  will  wait  a  day 
or  two  and  try  again  ;  therefore  do  not  expect  the  book  for  a  few 
weeks.  I  return  on  Monday  evening. 

To  THE  TENNYSON  CHILDEEN. 

TT  February,  1860. 

MY  DEAK  HALLAM  AND  LIONEL, 

What  an  age  it  is  since  I  saw  you !  Love  and  kisses. 
I  must  write  you  a  few  lines,  for  I  want  to  hear  from  you. 

Can  you  carry  a  message?  Tell  Papa  that  I  have  got  a 
Homer  for  him,  but  not  a  Boswell.  The  Homer  is  in  five 
volumes  and  costs  five  shillings. 

I  wish  I  had  you  after  dinner  to  sit  opposite  me  on  two 
chairs  and  hear  about  '  Louisa '  or  the  tale  of  Troy.  Try  and 
persuade  Papa  to  bring  you  in  the  summer. 

I  think  I  told  you  that  I  keep  a  large  school  to  which  you 
are  to  come  by-and-by.  All  the  boys  in  my  school  are  very 
big,  some  of  them  six  feet  high  and  more.  They  are  very 
busy  playing  at  soldiers  at  present ;  in  fact,  they  can  hardly 
be  got  to  do  anything  else1.  But  they  are  good  boys,  and 
I  like  them  very  much. 

Do  you  know  the  name  of  a  large  school  where  there  are 
only  old  boys  ?  It  is  called  a  University. 

1  The  Rifle  Corps  movement  was  at  its  height  in  1860. 


Letters,  1854-1860  289 

Give  my  love  to  Papa  and  Mama.  I  shall  add  two  pieces 
of  advice  to  you  in  large  letters  that  you  may  remember 
them : 

NEVEB    FEAR. 
KEVER  CRY. 

Good-bye.  You  may  as  well  guess  from  whom  this  comes, 
therefore  I  shall  only  sign  myself 

Your  affectionate  friend, 

OXONIENSIS. 


Note  on  Woolner's  /St.  Paul  (p.  287). 

Mr.  F.  T.  Palgrave  has  kindly  furnished  us  with  the 
following  account  (October,  1896)  :— 

'Woolner's  St.  Paul — with  three  similar  figures,  Moses, 
David,  and  (perhaps)  St.  John  Baptist — was  modelled  by  him 
and  cast  in  plaster ;  from  which  the  four  figures  were  carved, 
in  some  local  stone,  for  the  pulpit  in  Llandaff  Cathedral  nave. 
Woolner  did  not  superintend  the  carving,  which  I  have  heard 
is  rough.  The  series  was  in  the  E.  A.  Exhibition  about  1858 
or  1859.  He  never  did  better  work.' 


VOL.  I.  U 


CHAPTER  X 

'ESSAYS  AND  KEVIEWS.'     1860-1865 
(Act.  43-48) 

Essays  and  Reviews — Panic  in  the  religious  world—  The  Quarterly 
and  Edinburgh  Reviews-  Bishop  Wilberforce— Stanley  at  Oxford — 
Dr.  Pusey's  attitude — Bishop  Colenso— Prosecution  of  Williams  and 
Wilson— The  Vice-Chancellor's  Court— Continued  agitation  for  the 
Endowment  of  the  Greek  Chair— E.  Freeman  and  C.  Elton  -Endow- 
ment of  the  Chair  by  Christ  Church. 

TN  this  chapter  it  will  be  necessary  for  the  sake  of 
-*-  clearness  to  travel  beyond  the  strict  limits  of  Bio- 
graphy, and  to  recall  a  series  of  incidents  which  had 
important  consequences  not  only  for  the  subject  of  this 
memoir,  but  for  some  public  institutions.  They  gave 
to  his  career  its  final  bent  by  binding  him  to  Balliol; 
and  while  thus  enriching  that  College,  left  Christ  Church, 
and  the  Church  of  England  also,  poorer  than  they  might 
otherwise  have  been. 

In  the  summer  of  i8601  the  meeting  of  the  British 
Association  was  held  at  Oxford.  The  encounter  on  that 
occasion  between  Mr.  Huxley2  and  Bishop  Wilberforce, 
during  the  discussion  that  arose  concerning  Mr.  Darwin's 
Origin  of  Species*,  was  long  vividly  remembered  and 

1  June  27— July  3.  2  The  Right  Hon.  T.  H.  Huxley. 

8  Published  in  1859. 


'Essays  and  Reviews'  291 

has  been  described  elsewhere l.  But  the  excitement 
evoked  by  that  great  argument  gave  place  in  clerical 
circles  to  the  outcry  shortly  afterwards  raised  about  Essays 
and  Reviews.  Dean  Church,  in  writing  to  his  American 
correspondent,  Dr.  Asa  Gray,  early  in  1861,  observes 
with  reference  to  Darwin's  volume,  '  The  book  I  have 
no  doubt  would  be  the  subject  still  of  a  great  row,  if 
there  were  not  a  much  greater  row  going  on  about 
Essays  and  Reviews  V 

It  is  hard  for  the  present  generation  to  realize  the 
violence  of  this  disturbance.  The  '  religious  world '  lost 
their  heads  at  once,  and  there  was  a  danger  lest  even 
sensible  persons  among  the  laity  should  be  carried 
away.  Few  indeed  of  those  who  professed  orthodox 
opinions  shared  the  temperate  and  calm  judgement  of 
the  distinguished  clergyman  whose  words  I  have  just 
quoted.  '  There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  unwise  panic,' 
he  adds,  '  and  unjust  and  hasty  abuse ;  and  people  who 
have  not  an  inkling  of  the  difficulties  which  beset  the 
questions,  are  for  settling  them  in  a  summary  way, 
which  is  perilous  for  every  one.'  The  mischief  was 
already  afoot,  when  it  was  sedulously  fomented  at  a 
great  gathering  of  the  Oxford  M.A.'s,  who  had  come  up  to 
vote  in  Convocation  against  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Max 
Muller  to  the  Chair  of  Sanskrit.  That  distinguished 
Orientalist  was  suspected  of  'Germanism,'  being  in  fact 
a  German,  and  also  an  acquaintance  of  the  Chevalier 
Bunsen,  whose  name  (if  only  on  account  of  Dr.  Arnold's 
friendship  for  him)  was  a  bugbear  to  many  of  the  orthodox 
at  the  time. 

The  clergy  who  came  up  on  that  occasion  had  their 
attention   called  to  an  article  in  the   Westminster  and 

1  See  Life  of  Charles  Daru-in,  vol.  ii.  pp.  321,  322. 

2  Dean  Church's  Life,  p.  157. 

U   2 


292  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  x 

Foreign  Quarterly  Review  of  October  i,  1860,  headed 
'  Neo-Christianity/  and  dealing  with  the  volume  in 
question1.  The  tenor  of  that  article  was  calculated  to 
excite  their  horror.  The  Westminster  was  then  the 
organ  of  the  Positivist  school,  whose  reputed  aim 
was  to  reconstruct  society  upon  the  ruins  of  existing 
systems ;  and  the  liberalizing  of  Christianity  plainly 
did  not  fall  in  with  such  a  project.  Accordingly  the 
line  taken  by  this  periodical  was  to  caricature  a  position 
such  as  that  of  the  Essayists,  in  which  Conservative 
and  Progressive  principles  were  combined,  as  one  of 
hopeless  inconsistency,  and,  in  short,  to  push  these 
writers  over  the  precipice,  on  the  brink  of  which  it 
represented  them  as  standing.  Instead,  however,  of  con- 
sidering the  questionableness  of  the  warning  ('Quis 
tulerit  Gracchos  de  seditione  querentes?'),  the  clergy,  who 
had  hardly  recovered  from  the  Darwinian  scare,  were 
in  the  mood  to  think,  'If  this  gives  offence  in  such 
a  quarter,  how  bad  it  must  be ! ' 

The  clerical  '  caucus '  was  immediately  followed  by  an 
outburst  of  abuse,  more  or  less  tempered  with  decorum, 
in  the  Record,  Guardian,  and  other  'religious'  news- 
papers ;  and  the  matter  was  seriously  taken  up  by  the 
Church's  representatives,  assembled  in  both  Houses  of 
Convocation  (whose  powers,  long  suppressed,  had  been 
revived  in  i86o)2.  The  bishops,  led  by  the  Bishop  of 
Oxford,  formally  denounced  the  book,  and  every  diocese, 

1  A    letter     from    Jowett    to  2  They  met  on  March  26.  In  the 

Stanley  of  April,  1862,  shows  that  Upper  House  Thirlwall  supported 

the  writer  of  this  article  was  after-  Wilberforce,and  Bishop  Hampden 

wards  believed  to  have  regretted  (of  all  persons)  said,  '  This  was  a 

his  vehemence,  and  that  when  he  question  between   Infidelity  and 

was  threatened  with  persecution  Christianity,  and  that  we  ought 

for  his  opinions,  Jowett  exerted  to  prosecute.' — Life  ofBp.  Wilber- 

himself  strenuously  on  his  behalf,  force,  vol.  iii.  p.  213. 


1860-1865]  Motives  misunderstood  293 

archdeaconry,  and  rural-diaconate  throughout  the  land 
became  a  busy  hive  for  the  manufacture  of  memorials 
against  the  notorious  '  seven.'  Still  heavier  artillery 
was  brought  to  bear.  In  the  January  number  of  the 
Quarterly  Review  for  1861,  there  appeared  an  article 
on  Essays  and  Reviews,  in  which  the  subtle  influence 
of  Bishop  Wilberforce1  was  easily  detected,  at  once 
depreciating  the  literary  merit  of  the  volume,  and 
emphasizing  both  its  dangerous  tendency  and  the  invi- 
dious position  of  the  clerical  contributors.  This  article 
became  a  rallying  point  for  controversialists  on  the 
orthodox  side.  And  two  imposing  volumes,  Aids  to 
Faith  and  Replies  to  Essays  and  Reviews,  both  now 
forgotten,  though  produced  under  high  auspices,  helped 
to  swell  the  cry  of  alarm  which  they  proposed  to  allay. 
But  besides  the  Comtist  critics,  and  the  clergy  of 
every  grade,  the  book  had  other  enemies.  There  were 
laymen  who  claimed  that  'Free  Inquiry'  should  be  the 
privilege  of  '  Free  Inquirers.'  To  such  persons  Jowett's 
position  was  wholly  incomprehensible.  Penetrated  as 
he  was  with  the  conviction  that  the  religion  of  Christ 
ought  to  be  the  religion  of  all  men,  and  seeing  in  the 
Church  of  England — could  she  but  know  'the  things 
belonging  to  her  peace' — the  best  hope  for  the  future 
of  Christianity,  he  had  overcome  the  difficulties  of 
his  position,  difficulties  which  were  not  greater 
for  the  Christian  Philosopher  than  for  the  Sacer- 
dotalist  or  the  Evangelical  Protestant.  He  saw  the 
religion  of  his  countrymen  dying,  like  poor  Dean  Swift, 
'  from  the  top ' — losing  touch,  that  is  to  say,  with  in- 
tellectual and  rational  life;  the  clergy,  meanwhile, 

1  The  writer  professes  to  trace      concealed   bitterness.'     This  was 
in  Mr.  Jowett's  Essay  '  a  certain      shrewdly  aimed, 
sense    of     disappointment    and 


294  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  x 

ignoring  plain  facts,  or  industriously  obscuring  them, 
or  explaining  them  away,  and  the  civilization  of  the 
age  in  danger  of  becoming,  as  he  himself  described 
humanity  without  religion,  'a  truncated,  half-educated 
sort  of  being1.'  The  average  English  layman  'cared  for 
none  of  these  things.'  His  withers  were  unwrung. 
Looking  at  the  matter  from  outside,  he  only  saw  the 
prima  facie  discrepancy  between  seventeenth-century 
Articles,  or  mediaeval  formularies  (already  at  variance 
with  each  other),  and  nineteenth-century  enlightenment2. 
It  followed  that  no  enlightened  person  should  become 
a  clergyman,  and  that  the  clergyman  who  became 
enlightened  and  let  men  know  it  should  be  unfrocked. 
It  did  not  occur  to  such  observers  to  ask  the  further 
question,  what  then  would  happen  to  religion?  Nor 
did  they  stop  to  think  that  by  maintaining  silence, 
the  Essayist  might  have  served  his  personal  interest, 
but  would  have  sacrificed  a  noble  end.  Hence  they 
were  ready  to  join  in  the  cry  of  '  disloyalty.' 
Mr.  Carlyle,  the  Chelsea  oracle,  who  often  cared  not 
whom  or  what  he  smote,  so  he  smote  hard  enough, 
was  at  once  ready  with  his  epigram.  He  had  himself 
proclaimed  the  'Exodus  from  Houndsditch 3,'  but  had 
not  shown  a  way  through  the  "Wilderness;  yet  the 
moment  some  one  from  within  the  camp  spoke  words  of 
truth  and  soberness,  he  broke  out  with  '  The  sentinel  who 
deserts,  should  be  shot  V  And  the  organ  of  sceptical  Con- 

1  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  third  force,  vol.  iii.  p.  8 :  '  Rode  with 

edition,  vol.  ii.  p.  96.  Carlyle  .  .  .  Carlyle  against  the 

8  See  Letters  of  Matthew  Arnold,  Essayists  on  dishonesty  ground 

vol.  i.  pp.  131,  135,  178.  and  atheistic.'  Some  who  ding 

3  His  quaint  phrase  for  getting  to  Carlyle's  authority  in  such  a 
rid  of  Hebrew  old  clothes,  that  is,  matter  may  bear  to  be  reminded 
of  Jewish  tradition.  of  the  more  considerate  utterance 

4  Cf.  the  Life  of  Bishop  Wilber-  of  John    Stuart    Mill:     'I    hold 


1860-1865]     (  The  Storm  in  the  Church  '  295 

servatism,  not  untinged  with  clericalism — the  Saturday 
Review — in  two  articles,  headed  '  Essays  and  Reviews ' 
(March  2,  1861)  and  'The  Storm  in  the  Church' 
(March  23,  1861),  while  solemnly  professing  reluctance  to 
meddle  with  the  subject,  indulged  in  unworthy  sneers 
at  the  position  of  the  writers : — 

'Fair  dealing,  after  all,  is  an  essential  part  of  practical 
religion  ;  and  liberty  of  conduct  may  do  as  much  harm  to 
morality  as  liberty  of  speculation  can  do  good  to  Truth.  That 
there  has  been,  and  will  be,  abundance  of  applause,  as  well 
as  of  indignation,  is  true  ;  but  it  does  not  follow  that  those 
who  think  it  politic  to  drive  in  the  wedge,  in  their  hearts 
respect  the  wedge  which  they  drive  in  V 

Then  with  reference  to  the  foolish  action  of  the 
bishops  in  denouncing,  i.  e.  advertising,  the  book : — • 

'  Has  any  perpetual  curate  with  fourteen  children  a  volume 
of  dull  sermons  which  no  publisher  will  take?  Let  him 

entirely    with    those    clergymen  disadvantage  of  having  the  bigots 

who  elect  to  remain  in  the  national  for  their  allies,  and  who,  however 

Church,  so  long  as  they  are  able  great  their  merits  may  be— and 

to  accept  its  Articles  and  confes-  they  are  often  very  great— yet,  if 

sions  in  any  sense  or  with  any  the  Church  is  improvable,  are  not 

interpretation     consistent     with  the  most  likely  persons  to  improve 

common  honesty,  whether  it  be  it.  ...  Almost  all  the  illustrious 

the  generally  received  interpre-  reformers  of  religion  began  by 

tation  or  not.    If   all   were   to  being  clergymen,  but  they  did 

desert  the    Church  who   put    a  not  think   that  their  profession 

large  and  liberal  construction  on  as    clergymen  was    inconsistent 

its  terms  of  communion,  or  who  with  their  being  reformers.    They 

would  wish  to  see  those  terms  mostly  indeed  ended  their  days 

widened,  the  national  provision  outside  the  Churches  in  which 

for  religious  teaching  and  wor-  they  were  born;  but  it  was  because 

ship   would    be    left    utterly  to  the  Churches,  in  an  evil  hour  for 

those  who  take   the   narrowest,  themselves,  cast  them  out.'— In- 

the     most    literal,    and    purely  augural  Address  at  St.  Andrews, 

textual  view  of  the  formularies;  February  i,  1867. 
who,  though  by  no  means  neces-          J  Saturday   Review,    March    2, 

sarily  bigots,  are  under  the  great  1861. 


296  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  x 

insert  into  the  volume  a  few  passages  sufficiently  questionable 
in  their  tendency  to  call  down  his  diocesan,  and  his  little 
ones  will  be  fed.  Is  any  would-be  popular  preacher  languish- 
ing under  a  sense  of  neglected  talent?  Let  him  spice  high 
with  heterodoxy,  and  he  is  a  famous  man  V 

Such  words,  in  looking  back  upon  them,  only  provoke 
a  smile  ;  but  they  caused  some  anger  at  the  time  ;  not  in 
Jowett  himself,  who  attributed  them  to  '  a  fit  of  indiges- 
tion '  on  the  part  of  the  writer,  but  in  his  friend  Charles 
Bowen2,  who  withdrew  from  the  staff  of  the  Saturday 
Review  in  consequence  of  them.  Yet  the  writer  of  the 
first  article  made  an  important  admission:  'The  book 
has  a  conservative  as  well  as  a  destructive  side,  which  it 
is  not  fair  or  wise  to  overlook.'  Had  this  conservative 
purpose  been  carefully  weighed  by  those  ecclesiastics,  who, 
like  Dean  Church,  were  not  unaware  of  the  difficulties 
involved,  the  Church  might  have  profited  by  a  con- 
troversy, which,  as  it  was,  had  only  a  desolating  effect 3. 
I  mean  for  the  time.  For  that  the  joint  endeavour 
of  the  seven  Essayists  was  fruitless,  it  is  idle  to  affirm  4. 
To  say  that  they  formed  no  party  is  wholly  to  mis- 

1  Saturday  Review,   March  23,  than  secret  propagandism.     Free 
1861.  speech,  indeed,  is  not  truth  ;  but 

2  The  late  Lord  Bowen.  it  is  the   condition   of  securing 

3  The   Spectator  of  those  days  truth.' 

formed  an  honourable  exception  4  Cf.  Lecky's  Democracy  and 
to  the  spirit  of  panic  which  had  Liberty,  vol.  i.  p.  425 :  '  The  first 
seized  on  the  periodical  press,  very  marked  change  in  this  re- 
in reviewing  the  Essays  on  April  spect  followed,  I  think,  the  publi- 
7,  1860  ('  Open  Teaching  in  the  cation  in  1860  of  the  Essays  and 
Church  of  England '),  it  spoke  of  Reviews ;  and  the  effect  of  this 
the  book  as  a  '  splendid  example  book  in  making  the  religious 
of  sincerity,  of  courage  and  truth-  questions  which  it  discussed  fa- 
fulness  in  action  ' ;  and  the  writer  miliar  to  the  great  body  of  edu- 
of  an  article  on  May  25,  1861,  cated  men  was  probably  by  far 
pleaded  against  legal  measures  as  the  most  important  of  its  conse- 
unwise:  'Opendiscussionisbetter  quences.' 


1860-1865]         The  ' Edinburgh  Review'  297 

apprehend  the  situation.  Professor  Jowett,  at  least,  as 
I  have  already  shown,  never  sought  to  form  a  party. 
His  object  was  to  reconcile  intellectual  persons  to 
Christianity,  and  to  exhort  the  clergy  to  the  love  of 
Truth.  If  he  was  not  wholly  successful,  he  shared  that 
fate  with  others  who  have  striven  to  combat  the  pre- 
judices of  their  age. 

Why  is  it  that  what  then  raised  such  a  tempest 
appears  so  harmless  now  ?  May  not  something  be  attri- 
buted to  the  contention  of  those  days  ?  Not  that  Jowett 
openly  took  part  in  any  contention.  Again  he  acted 
on  the  rule — 'The  only  thing  to  do  is  to  do  nothing.' 
The  Bishop  of  London,  A.  C.  Tait,  after  saying  to 
Dr.  Stanley  that  he  saw  no  matter  for  condemnation  in 
Temple,  Jowett,  or  Pattison,  gave  his  signature  to  the 
Bishops'  letter,  which  condemned  the  Essayists  in  general. 
This  course  of  his,  although  it  shook  Jowett's  confidence 
for  the  moment — 'It  is  natural  in  him  but  it  ruins 
confidence ' — did  not  interrupt  his  friendship  towards  his 
former  Tutor.  He  wrote  an  elaborate  letter  to  A.  C.  T., 
but  did  not  send  it1.  Dr.  Stanley,  who  was  still  at 
Oxford,  came  to  the  front  in  his  own  gallant  fashion 
with  what  his  biographer  describes  as  a  'fiery'  article 
in  the  Edinburgh  Review  for  April,  1861 2,  in  which,  with 
provoking  coolness,  he  claims  the  declared  adversaries 
of  the  volume  as  its  real  supporters  3 ;  and  quotes  many 
latitudinarian  precedents  from  Anglican  divines.  This 
action  was  the  more  chivalrous  on  his  part,  as  he  had 

1  p.  346.  of  piety  and  of  Christian  feeling 

2  He  had  previously  taken  part  which  pervaded  those  writings, 
with  T.  H.  Green  in  the  publi-          3  He  begins  with  an  effective 
cation  of  some  extracts  from  Prof.  appeal  to  Bishop  Thirl  wall  as  an 
Jowett's  works  entitled  Statements  historian,  who   had  himself  ad- 
of  Christian  Doctrine  and  Practice,  mirably  described  the    effect  of 
intended  to  illustrate  the  spirit  religious  panic. 


298  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  x 

dissuaded  Jowett  from  allying  himself  with  others  in 
this  attack  on  the  orthodox  position1.  Jowett  always 
maintained  that  Stanley's  article  made  the  whole  situa- 
tion different  from  what  it  might  have  been. 

It  was  in  January  of  the  next  year  (1862)  that  Bishop 
"Wilberforce  said  to  Stanley  at  Cuddesdon,  with  a  furtive 
smile,  '  The  Augurs  have  met/  so  confessing  the  author- 
ship of  the  attack  in  the  Quarterly2.  The  restless 
activity  of  the  bishop  had  not  ended  there.  He  de- 
nounced the  Essayists  from  the  University  pulpit  in  two 
sermons  which  he  published  3.  One  of  these  contained 
an  amazing  paragraph  on  'the  Doubter's  death,'  which 
was  much  approved  in  certain  quarters  at  the  time. 

In  a  series  of  '  Tracts  for  Priests  and  People '  which 
were  coming  out  as  a  manifesto  of  the  Maurician 
school,  a  sort  of  middle  course  was  taken,  claiming  some 
latitude  of  interpretation  and  deprecating  injustice,  but, 
with  evident  sincerity,  professing  to  hold  firmly  by  the 
Creeds  and  Articles  4. 

Even  if  he  had  chosen,  the  Tutor  so  assailed  had  no 
opportunity  of  reply.  He  had  long  been  excluded  from 
the  University  pulpit.  In  Balliol  itself  '  Catechetics ' 
had  taken  the  place  of  the  sermon  (the  successive 
Lecturers  being  Lonsdale,  Biddell,  and  "Woollcombe),  and 
the  terminal  address  before  the  Communion  gave  even 
less  room  for  controversy.  Jowett's  voice  was  occasion- 
ally heard,  however,  in  out-of-the-way  parts  of  London. 
His  old  friend  "W.  Rogers  was  glad  to  have  his  aid  in 
Bishopsgate  Street  from  time  to  time.  (They  had 
renewed  their  intercourse  while  Rogers  was  acting 

1  p.  276.  preached  before  the  University 

3  Dean  Stanley's  Letters,  p.  of  Oxford,  1861. 

313.  *  See  especially  F.  D.  Maurice's 

3  The  Revelation  of  God,  the  own  essay,  entitled  The  Mote  and 

Probation  of  Man :   two  sermons  the  Beam. 


1860-1865]  Unflinching  Loyalty  299 

on  the  Duke  of  Newcastle's  Commission  of  Inquiry  into 
popular  Education,  which,  reported  in  1861.)  The 
Rev.  Harry  Jones,  of  St.  Luke's,  Berwick  Street,  was 
another  clergyman  who  honoured  himself  by  welcoming 
the  heretic  to  his  church.  Miss  F.  P.  Cobbe,  who  heard 
him  there,  has  given  a  good  description  of  his  manner 
in  preaching1.  A  sermon  preached  in  1864  so  struck 
some  of  those  who  heard  it  that  they  requested  him  to 
publish  it;  but  he  would  not.  It  was  not  till  1866  that 
Dean  Stanley  ventured  to  nominate  him  as  a  Preacher 
in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  in  1870  it  was  still  an 
exceptional  privilege  to  hear  him,  as,  for  example,  in 
Mr.  Haweis's  pulpit,  St.  James's,  Marylebone.  Although 
the  sermons  generally  contained  some  expression  of  liberal 
opinion,  their  main  tenor  was  hortatory — '  idealizing  life.' 

He  was  also  afterwards  silently  left  out  of  the  Board 
of  Theological  Studies,  whose  institution  he  had  advocated 
in  1848-51,  and  on  which  the  Professor  of  Greek  as  well 
as  the  Professor  of  Hebrew  had  a  natural  right  to  appear. 

Jowett  himself  did  not  heartily  accept  the  appellation 
'  Broad  Church.'  What  is  broad  has  limits.  He  would 
have  preferred  some  expression  conveying  more  the  sense 
of  a  diffusive  and  expansive  spirit,  leavening  humanity. 
He  wrote  to  Stanley  in  1862:  'A  lady  said  to  me  some 
time  ago  that  we  Liberals  should  not  talk  about  freedom, 
but  about  truth — that  was  the  flag  under  which  to  fight. 
I  think  that  was  a  just  criticism.'  He  grew  very  weary 
of  the  continual  buzz.  When  eleven  editions  of  Essays 
and  Reviews  had  sold,  he  said,  '  We  have  had  enough  of 
this  volume :  let  us  turn  to  something  else.'  He  never 
'  started  aside,'  however,  from  supporting  his  companions 
in  distress,  but  stood  by  them  with  unflinching  loyalty. 

1  Autobiography,  $c.,  vol.  i.  p.  356 :  '  He  looks  at  one  as  I  never 
knew  any  preacher  do.' 


300  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  x 

Some  friendly  clerics,  amongst  others  Tait,  the  Bishop 
of  London,  sought  to  divide  Jowett  and  Temple  from  the 
other  Essayists,  '  making  a  difference,'  according  to  an 
Apostolic  precept 1.  Jowett  deliberately  refused  to  second 
this  attempt,  although  he  hinted,  in  conversation  with 
his  private  friends,  the  discomfort  which  attended  his 
alliance  with  the  perfervid  Celtic  spirit  in  such  an 
enterprise. 

But  he  stood  manfully  by  Rowland  Williams  and  by 
H.  B.  Wilson,  in  the  well-known  trial 2.  He  wrote  on  the 
subject :  '  I  am  not  anxious  about  the  event  of  R.  W.'s 
case.  I  feel  convinced  that  sooner  or  later  the  Church 
of  England  will  find  it  impossible  to  subsist  as  a  fabric 
of  falsehood  and  fiction.' 

The  scandal  caused  by  the  claim  for  latitude  on  the 
part  of  the  six  clerical  contributors  to  Essays  and 
Reviews,  was  quickly  followed  by  a  fresh  excitement 
arising  from  a  similar  claim  on  the  part  of  a  bishop  of 
the  Church  of  England,  though  only  a  Colonial  bishop — 
Dr.  Colenso,  the  well-known  Bishop  of  Natal 3.  Noncon- 
formist bodies  were  similarly  disturbed.  Dr.  Samuel 
Davidson,  the  author  of  a  learned  Introduction  to  the 
Old  Testament,  was  cast  out  by  the  Independent  Synod. 
The  last-mentioned  fact  recalls  an  incidental  result  of 
this  whole  controversy.  Not  only  were  the  differences 
between  the  High  and  Low  Church  parties  consider- 
ably softened  in  making  common  cause  against  the 
supposed  enemy,  but  the  jealousy  of  Dissent,  only 
a  short  while  since  'so  rich  within  their  souls/  gave 
way  before  the  advantage  of  a  temporary  alliance  with 

1  Jude  22.  and    Fremantle    (Murray,   1865), 

2  See    Ecclesiastical  Judgments      pp.  247-290. 

of  the  Privy  Council,  by  Brodrick          3  Oct.  1862;  ib.,  pp.  293-317. 


1860-1865]     Dr.  Lushington's  Judgement  301 

the  right  wing  of  Nonconformity.  Church  order  for 
the  time  seemed  less  important  than  orthodox  belief. 
Among  the  Essayists,  the  chief  sufferer  in  all  this  was 
the  Rev.  H.  B.  Wilson,  who  defended  his  own  cause  with 
great  ability  and  learning :  and  although  suspended 
from  his  office  for  a  year,  and  completely  broken 
down  in  health,  probably  did  more  by  his  individual 
efforts  towards  enlarging  the  boundaries  of  free  inquiry 
within  the  Church  of  England  than  any  other  single 
man.  Both  with  Wilson  and  Colenso  Jowett  main- 
tained an  active  friendship,  in  which,  while  preserving 
his  own  independence  of  action,  he  gave  invaluable 
support  to  others. 

His  first  impression  of  Colenso's  book  appears  in 
a  letter  to  Stanley: — 

'I  think  the  tone  is  a  good  deal  mistaken.  But  don't  be 
hurt  or  pained  by  it.  You  work  in  one  way,  he  in  another, 
I  perhaps  in  a  third  way.  All  good  persons  should  agree  in 
heartily  sympathizing  with  the  effort  to  state  the  facts  of 
Scripture  exactly  as  they  are.  Then  you  really  seem  like 
Athanasius  against  the  whole  Christian  world,  past  and 
present.  My  impression  is  that  mankind  will  never  seek  for 
anything  better,  until  they  are  convinced  of  their  true  position 
about  Scripture.' 

He  wrote  to  me  in  reference  to  the  Judgement  in  the 
Court  of  Arches  (in  a  letter  dated  Linlathen,  July  16, 
1862):  'I  am  satisfied  and  pleased  with  the  Judgement 
of  Dr.  Lushington  on  the  whole.  A  great  step  has 
been  gained  in  freedom  for  the  Church  of  England.' 
He  meant,  no  doubt,  that  although  the  two  Essayists 
had  been  condemned  on  single  points,  the  rejection  of 
so  many  of  the  articles  of  accusation  formed  a  precedent 
of  solid  value. 

Dr.  Williams  and  Mr.  Wilson,  however,  were  naturally 


302  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  x 

not  satisfied ;  and  on  their  appeal  to  the  Queen  in 
Council,  Dr.  Lushington's  partial  condemnation  was 
reversed  by  Lord  Chancellor  "Westbury's  Judgement  on 
February  8,  1864 1.  Jowett  had  written  to  Stanley  in 
August,  1862,  'I  think  it  well  that  the  suit  should 
continue.  More  freedom  will  probably  be  gained.' 

Meanwhile  Jowett  himself  had  become  involuntarily 
the  centre  of  a  local  conflict  which  harassed  him  for 
several  years.  The  question  of  the  salary  had  slumbered 
until  March,  1858,  when  Stanley  as  Professor  of  Ecclesi- 
astical History  succeeded  to  a  Canonry  at  Christ  Church, 
and  came  into  residence  at  Oxford.  For  the  reasons 
stated 2  in  a  previous  chapter  he  found  the  question  at 
Christ  Church  already  foreclosed.  But  he  at  once  began 
to  exert  his  influence  in  the  University,  especially  with 
members  of  the  Hebdomadal  Council ;  and  the  motions 
recorded  by  him  in  his  speech  of  November  20,  1861 3, 
were  due  to  his  suggestion.  All  that  had  been  done 
before  his  coming  had  been  to  refer  the  question  of 
unendowed  Professorships  generally  to  a  Committee  of 
Council,  which  had  not  reported. 

The  first  intimation  of  one  of  these  efforts  of  Stanley 
and  his  friends  came  to  Jowett  when  away  from  Oxford 
after  hearing  of  his  brother  Alfred's  death.  He  wrote 
to  Stanley  in  a  letter  which  it  would  be  wrong  to 
mutilate,  although  the  part  referring  to  his  personal 
loss  is  not  relevant  in  this  connexion: — 

'  I  return  the  papers  which  you  sent  me.  I  have  hardly 
looked  at  them,  but  enough  to  show  me  the  great  kindness 

1  Mr.  Bowen,  afterwards  Lord          s  A     Speech    delivered    in    the 
Bowen,  wrote  on  the  margin  of  his  House    of    Congregation    on    the 
copy  of  the  Chancellor's  deliver-  Endowment  of  the    Regius    Pro- 
ance — '  Hell  dismissed  with  costs.'  fessorship    of   Greek,    by    Arthur 

2  p.  242.  Penrhyn  Stanley,  &c.,  p.  5. 


1860-1865]  Question  of  Endowment  of  Greek  Chair  303 

of  my  friends.  I  hope  that  they  will  not  think  me  cold  or 
ungrateful.  I  had  no  idea  that  you  were  going  to  take  any 
step  during  this  Term,  or  I  should  have  written  to  ask  you 
to  do  so  in  the  way  you  have  done. 

'  I  cannot  express  to  you  what  I  feel  about  this  matter,  or 
about  your  kind  sympathy  respecting  my  dear  brother's  death. 
It  does  not  make  any  great  difference  to  the  world,  but  it 
makes  a  great  difference  to  me,  for  he  was  a  dear  good  brother 
to  me,  and  always  to  the  end  of  his  life  retained  the  strongest 
sense  of  what  I  had  done  for  his  education  in  old  times 
amid  many  troubles  and  difficulties,  which  are  with  the  past 
now.  But  I  sometimes  wish  that  I  could  bring  them 
back,  if  I  could  bring  back  all  those  who  were  then  living, 
and  especially  if  I  could  use  the  experience  that  I  now  have 
for  their  good.'  (Tenby,  December,  1858.) 

Stanley's  hands  were  strengthened  by  the  return  to 
Oxford  of  Dean  Liddell,  who  resumed  his  place  in  the 
Council  in  1859.  And  in  Michaelmas  Term,  1860,  Stanley 
himself  became  a  Professorial  Member  of  Council,  while 
Dr.  Pusey  was  re-elected.  Then  both  champions  were 
in  the  field,  and  the  fight  began  in  earnest.  After 
several  proposals,  including  that  of  the  Dean  of  Christ 
Church,  had  been  successively  overborne,  Dr.  Pusey, 
to  the  surprise  of  every  one,  took  the  matter  in  hand. 
He  had  probably  begun  to  see  that  the  continued 
withholding  of  the  salary  was  likely  to  alienate  young 
men  from  the  party  of  which  he  was  the  head,  the 
more  so  if  Stanley  gained  his  point,  which  he  was 
sure  to  do  in  the  end.  And,  although  the  movements 
of  such  a  mind  are  somewhat  inscrutable,  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  Dr.  Pusey,  as  an  English  gentleman, 
was  acutely  alive  to  the  painfulness  of  his  position. 
He  sought,  however,  to  reconcile  the  step  with  his 
peculiar  principles,  by  introducing  a  proviso,  which 
would  have  given  the  University  authorities  an  effective 


304  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  x 

voice  in  future  appointments l.  Cumbrous  as  the  resolu- 
tion was,  Stanley  accepted  it  as  a  pis  oiler,  and  it  was 
proposed  in  Convocation2,  but  not  carried.  A  scheme 
involving  so  many  complications  had  little  chance  with 
a  body  so  ready  to  listen  to  objections.  Dr.  Pusey 
sought  to  throw  the  burden  of  odium  on  those  Liberals 
who  had  voted  against  his  measure3,  and  remained 
deaf  to  any  further  proposal. 

Jowett  not  only  possessed  his  soul  in  patience  all  this 
while,  but  was  ready  to  extend  sympathy  to  others  who 
like  himself  were  victims  of  the  spirit  of  religious 
intolerance  which  had  gone  abroad.  I  select  one  of 
several  letters  which  he  wrote  about  this  time  to 
Mr.  Charles  Voysey,  whose  theological  views  expressed  in 
sermons  had  brought  him  into  trouble  with  ecclesiastical 

superiors : — 

'  WHITBY,  July  26,  [1861]. 

'  I  think  I  told  you  in  one  of  my  former  letters  that  I  had 
little  means  of  assisting  others.  But  I  will  certainly  do  what 
I  can  to  help  you.  I  am  very  glad  that  you  went  to  Yarmouth 
and  proved  what  you  could  do  in  parish  work.  Would  it 
be  possible  to  stay  on  till  Christmas  and  so  leave  with  as 
little  of  "a  scene  "as  possible?  Supposing  that  an  attempt 
were  made  at  any  future  time  to  get  you  a  living  from  the 
Bishop  of  London  or  the  Chancellor,  it  would  go  much  against 
you  that  you  had  left  a  curacy  for  what  they  call  "  heterodoxy." 
This  is  what  Sydney  Smith  would  have  called  "a  dreary  time 
for  clergymen  of  liberal  opinions."  But  I  believe  that  it  will 
clear  and  that  we  shall  live  to  see  much  truer  ideas  pre- 
vailing of  the  nature  of  Christianity. 

1  For    Dr.    Pusey's    views    on      tion,  because  the  motion  took  the 
the  Professoriate  and  on  Crown      form  of  a  resolution  to  petition 
appointments,  see  Life  of  E.  B.      Parliament. 

Pusey,  vol.  iii.  pp.  382-391,  and          a  With  whom  lies  the  responsi- 

his   pamphlet  on    Collegiate  and  bility  of  the  approaching  Conflict 

Professoriate  Teaching,  1854.  as  to  the  Greek  Chair?  byPacificus, 

2  Convocation,  not  Congrega-  Nov.  1861. 


1860-1865]          Debate  in  Congregation  305 

'I  have  sent  your  two  enclosures  to  Dr.  Stanley,  and  re- 
quested him  to  show  them  to  a  friend  of  his  and  mine  who 
may  have  it  in  his  power  to  assist  your  views. 

1  Thank  you  for  your  sympathy  amid  all  this  noise.  I  really 
do  not  think  it  has  occasioned  me  any  trouble  or  anxiety/ 

In  October,  1861,  Stanley  again  brought  the  matter 
forward  in  Council,  and  carried  there  a  form  of  Statute 
for  endowing  the  Greek  Chair,  which  was  accordingly 
submitted  to  Congregation1.  The  vote  took  place  on 
November  26,  1861,  and  the  measure  was  rejected  by 
a  majority  of  three  (99  to  96).  The  majority  in  this  case 
was  only  partly  moved  by  theological  prepossessions. 
Academical  prejudice  also  had  its  share,  and  Pusey's 
contention  that  Crown  appointments  were  dangerous — 
because  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  were  no  longer 
consulted,  as  formerly  (see  next  page) — found  an  echo 
amongst  those  who  thought  that,  on  the  ground  of 
scholarship,  a  University  Board  would  have  made 
a  better  choice.  They  demurred  to  subsidizing  the 
nominee  of  the  Crown.  The  measure  had  been  promul- 
gated in  a  previous  meeting,  November  20,  1861.  The 
discussion  as  reported  in  the  Oxford  Chronicle  for 
November  23,  1861,  contained  some  points  which  should 
not  be  passed  over.  One  speaker  said  '  he  did  not  see 
that  the  present  Professor  had  any  claim  on  account 
of  his  labours,  which  were  purely  voluntary.' 

Mr.  Osborne  Gordon,  Student  and  Censor  of  Christ 
Church,  said,  'The  proper  quarter  from  which  to  obtain 
the  endowment  was  Christ  Church,  which  had  accepted  an 
estate  from  the  Crown  chargeable  with  the  stipend,  and 
had  actually  proposed  in  1854  to  endow  the  Professorship.' 

1  The  Hebdomadal  Council  Measures  passed  in  Council  were 
(see  p.  183)  had  the  sole  initi-  afterwards  submitted  (i)  to  Con- 
ative  in  University  Legislation.  gregation  and  (2)  to  Convocation. 

VOL.    I.  X 


306  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  x 

The  former  fact  was  flatly  denied  by  Professor  Pusey, 
who  said  'that  Christ  Church  had  received  no  estate, 
but  only  the  burden  of  making  the  payment.  .  .  .  Crown 
nominations  were  likely  to  be  made  on  political  grounds. 
Formerly  such  nominations  were  good,  because  the 
highest  ecclesiastical  advice  was  taken,  but  this  practice 
had  been  discontinued1.  He  must  oppose  the  endow- 
ment of  the  present  holder  on  theological  grounds :  .  .  . 
in  his  opinion  the  second  edition  of  the  work2  was 
worse  than  the  first.'  Professor  Mountague  Bernard 
disliked  Jowett's  theology,  but  '  did  not  think  it  advis- 
able to  discountenance  unsound  theology  by  means  of 
bad  morality.' 

It  was  after  this  adverse  vote  in  Congregation,  which 
effectually  stopped  further  proceedings  for  the  time,  that 
some  of  Jowett's  private  friends  without  his  knowledge 
subscribed  £2000,  which  sum  was  presented  to  him 
through  Mr.  Lingen. 

He  replied  as  follows : — 

BALLIOL  COLLEGE,  OXFORD, 

, ..  T  January  24,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  LINGEN, 

I  hardly  know  how  to  express  the  feeling  with  which 
I  received  through  you  the  information  that  the  sum  of  £2000 
had  been  placed  at  my  disposal  in  payment  of  the  salary  of 
the  Eegius  Professor  of  Greek,  which  has  hitherto  been 
withheld. 

It  is  the  greatest  pleasure  to  obtain  from  my  friends  such 
&  testimony  of  their  regard.  I  will  try  to  show  my  gratitude 
in  the  only  way  that  I  am  able,  by  increasing  energy  in  the 
work  of  the  Professorship. 

But  I  cannot  accept  their  munificent  present.  Though 
I  wish  to  see  an  endowment  provided  for  the  Chair,  I  ought 
not  to  receive  money  from  those  on  whom  I  have  no  claim. 

1  The  Dean  of  Christ  Church  had  by  Lord  Palmerston.  See  p.  237. 
been  consulted  in  the  present  case  2  The  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  fyc. 


1860-1865]  Troubles  in  College  307 

Could  I  have  anticipated  such  generosity,  I  would  never 
have  allowed  you  and  others  to  take  so  much  trouble  on 
my  behalf. 

Will  you  give  my  best  thanks  to  the  subscribers,  and  assure 
them  that  the  possession  of  the  list  of  their  names  gives  me 
a  satisfaction  far  greater  than  the  pecuniary  advantage  which 
they  designed  for  me  ? 

In  a  private  letter  to  a  friend  abroad,  he  wrote  as 
follows  on  February  2  : — 

'You  saw  in  the  Italian  papers  about  the  poor  indotato 
Professor.  What  do  you  think  has  happened  to  him  since? 
His  friends  collected  a  subscription  of  £2000  to  pay  his  salary 
for  the  last  five  years :  (Earl  Eussell,  Lord  Lansdowne,  and 
various  old  Whigs  and  lovers  of  religious  liberty  were  among 
the  subscribers).  It  is  a  great  pity  that  though  he  loves 
money,  which  he  believes  to  be  the  source  of  every  good,  he 
could  not  make  up  his  mind  to  accept  it.  ...  It  does  not  do, 
and  is  not  consistent  with  the  dignity  of  a  human  being,  to 
have  received  about  £20  from  everybody  you  meet  at  dinner. 
Yet  he  is  very  sensible  that  it  is  a  great  thing  to  have  such 
friends.  .  .  .' 

Strangely  enough,  at  this  juncture  Stanley  seems  to 
have  imagined  the  possibility  of  Jowett's  preferment  to 
the  Deanery  of  Exeter.  Jowett  refuses  to  believe  it 
(unless  indeed  some  pious  Minister  wished  to  remove 
his  influence  from  Oxford),  but  adds  that  while  he  would 
not  be  sorry  if  it  were  offered  (on  public  grounds),  he 
is  clear  that  it  would  be  wrong  to  accept  it,  and  that 
he  ought  to  continue  there  the  educational  work  in 
which  he  and  Stanley  were  jointly  engaged. 

The  troubles  of  this  period  were  aggravated  by 
his  relation  to  his  colleagues  in  Balliol,  which,  as  he 
wrote  to  Palgrave  in  1861,  sometimes  affected  him  more 
than  any  public  attacks.  His  attitude  in  withdrawing 
from  Hall  and  Common  Room  had  no  doubt  tended  to 

X  2 


308  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  x 

make  the  position  there  more  strained,  and  though  he 
had  the  support  of  a  minority,  chiefly  amongst  the  junior 
Fellows,  these  men  had  not  yet  that  experience  of  life 
and  of  the  world  which  would  have  enabled  them  to 
enter  into  all  his  anxieties.  They  were  sometimes 
neutral  where  he  felt  most  need  of  help,  and  his  obsti- 
nate silence  on  all  personal  matters  prevented  them  from 
understanding  the  effect  of  this.  In  the  summer  of 
1862,  a  permissive  ordinance  of  the  Commissioners  for 
relaxing  the  marriage  restriction  in  the  case  of  a  Pro- 
fessorial Fellow  gave  rise  to  a  practical  question,  which 
was  settled  in  favour  of  another  Fellow  of  the  College ; 
and  a  motion  of  Jowett's  for  abolishing  the  restriction 
altogether  and  making  Fellowships  terminable  except  for 
College  officials,  was  referred  to  a  Committee  which  did 
not  report.  Whether  or  not  Jowett  would  have  availed 
himself  of  the  privilege,  had  it  been  granted,  must  be  left 
in  doubt,  but  it  is  certain  that  he  felt  himself  aggrieved. 
'  My  College  want  to  get  rid  of  me,  which  is  rather  hard  V 
he  wrote  to  an  intimate  friend  at  the  time,  and  expressed 
himself  on  the  subject  with  considerable  bitterness  to 
two  others  severally,  of  whom  the  late  Professor  Nichol 
was  one.  It  is  also  true  that  when  the  salary  of  the 
Greek  Chair  was  augmented  in  1865,  he  observed  to 
more  than  one  friend  that  the  benefit  had  come  too  late 
to  be  of  importance  to  him  personally,  though  it  might 
have  been  so  a  few  years  before2.  It  has  been  already 
seen,  on  two  previous  occasions,  that  where  Jowett  was 
thwarted  he  renewed  his  energies.  And  the  result  of 
this  and  of  other  crosses  in  his  relation  to  the  College 

1  A  piece  of  gossip  repeated  by  his  Fellowship  for  his  heresies  ' 

Matthew  Arnold  in  a  letter  of  (Letters  of  Matthew  Arnold,  vol.  i. 

Nov.  19,  1862,  probably  reflects  p.  175). 

this  feeling  :    '  There  is  a  move          2  See  Autobiography  of  Frances 

to  turn  the  latter  (Jowett)  out  of  Power  Cobbe,  vol.  i.  p.  353. 


1860-1865]  Prosecution  in  Chancellor's  Court       309 

was  that  he  threw  himself  with  ever-increasing  perti- 
nacity into  the  educational  work  to  which  his  life  was 
now  irrevocably  devoted.  Even  his  younger  colleagues, 
however,  after  this  perceived  that  he  was  more  reserved 
in  his  dealings  with  them  than  formerly.  They  were 
aware  of  a  coolness  which  they  could  not  account  for. 

There  is  an  entry  in  one  of  the  latest  of  his  note-books, 
where  in  counting  up  the  blessings  of  his  life  he  says, 
'  There  is  one  happiness  which  I  have  never  had ' ;  and 
some  years  earlier,  in  1880,  'The  great  want  of  life  can 
never  be  supplied,  and  I  must  do  without  it.'  The 
reasons  for  this  are  expressed  in  his  letter  to  Dean  Stanley 
of  March  10,  1865 1. 

"Whatever  he  may  have  thought  and  felt  in  his  own  case, 
he  was  strangely  persistent  in  advising  more  than  one  of 
his  friends  to  marry — 'It  is  not  good  for  man  to  be 
alone ' ;  '  It  won't  do  to  live  without  a  companion  V  And 
in  congratulating  another  friend  he  wrote :  '  There  is 
nothing  better  under  the  sun  than  to  be  happily  married.' 

But  if  he  ever  felt  a  void  in  his  life,  he  had  rich 
compensation  in  his  many  warm  friendships,  and  in  the 
College  which,  as  he  said  long  afterwards,  was  to  him 
in  the  place  of  a  family: — 'I  mean  it  seriously,'  he  added 
after  a  pause.  He  rejoiced  in  the  happiness  of  other 
married  lives,  and  the  ideal  light  in  which  he  had  viewed 
such  relationships  in  the  days  of  his  youth  never  really 
left  him,  though  he  talked  sometimes  with  playful  irony 
about  the  actual  state  of  things  and  persons  in  the  world. 

Prosecution  in  the  Chancellor's  Court. 

Professor  Jowett's  opponents  had  been  often  encountered 
with  the  taunt :  '  You  should  not  treat  as  a  heretic  one 

1  See  p.  374.  2  This  is  from  a  letter  dated  July  9,  1893. 


310  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  x 

who  has  not  been  condemned  in  any  court.'  They 
waited  until  the  Dean  of  the  Arches  had  pronounced 
judgement  in  the  cases  of  Dr.  Williams  and  Mr.  Wilson. 
This  he  did  in  effect  on  June  25,  1862,  although  the  sen- 
tence of  suspension  was  not  pronounced  until  September 
12.  Then  Dr.  Phillimore,  the  Queen's  Advocate,  was 
consulted  (i)  Whether  Professor  Jowett,  in  his  Essay  and 
Commentary,  had  so  distinctly  contravened  the  doctrines 
of  the  Church  of  England  that  a  court  of  law  would 
pronounce  him  guilty ;  and  (2)  as  to  the  legal  position 
of  Professor  Jowett. 

The  answers  of  counsel  were  to  the  effect  (i)  that 
Professor  Jowett's  Essay  on  the  Atonement  contradicts 
the  Articles,  while  the  Essay  on  Interpretation  is  at 
variance  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England 
concerning  inspiration  '  according  to  the  recent  judgement 
of  the  Dean  of  the  Arches,'  and  also  that  it  contradicts 
the  eighth  Article,  concerning  the  Three  Creeds :  (2) 
That  while  the  provisions  of  the  Clergy  Discipline  Act 
could  hardly  be  construed  so  as  to  affect  proceedings 
against  a  Professor,  the  Vice-Chancellor  would  notwith- 
standing be  bound  to  admit  articles  containing  charges 
of  heresy  against  any  Professor  resident  in  the  Univer- 
sity, and  might  be  compelled  by  mandamus  to  hear  and 
try  such  a  charge. 

Professor  Baden  Powell,  '  after  denying  Miracles,'  had, 
in  the  pious  language  of  the  Preface  to  the  '  Case  and 
Opinion,'  been  'removed  before  a  higher  Tribunal';  and 
the  Professor  of  Greek  was  therefore  singled  out  as  the 
object  of  the  proceedings  which  followed *. 

1  Of  the  remaining  members  of  a  layman  ;  Mr.  Pattison  held  a 

the  seven,  Mr.  Goodwin  had  re-  small  living,  which,  however,  as 

signed  his  Fellowship  at  Christ's  '  donative,1   was  not    subject  to 

College,   Cambridge,  while   still  episcopal    institution ;    and  Dr. 


1860-1865]        The  Chancellor's  Monition 


311 


This  new  move  made  no  difference  in  Jowett's  outward 
bearing,  but  the  first  intimation  of  it  caused  him  real 
anxiety  both  for  himself  and  for  the  cause  he  had  at 
heart.  He  wrote  to  Stanley : — 

'  February  3,  1863. 

'I  hear  that  this  monition1  is  to  be  issued  at  the  V.-C. 
Court  next  week.  This  seems  to  take  for  granted  that  the 
V.-C.  will  act.  Will  you  consider  the  matter,  and,  if  an 
opportunity  offers,  talk  the  matter  over  with  Bowen  (33  Alfred 
Place,  Thurlow  Square)  ?  Pattison  counsels  submission.  But 
submission  appears  to  imply  that  the  limits  of  the  Church  of 
England  in  the  University  are  acknowledged  to  be  narrowed, 
and  gives  up  all  the  legal  difficulties. 

'  Will  you  get  two  copies  of  the  Church  Discipline  Act  ? 
Do  you  think  I  should  put  the  matter  in  the  hands  of 
Stephen?  Will  you  call  on  Murray  and  warn  him  not  to 


Temple  as  Head  Master  of  Rugby 
and  Queen's  Chaplain  was  subject 
to  other  than  ecclesiastical  or 
academical  discipline. 

1  The  monition  (a  copy  of 
which  seems  to  have  been  enclosed 
in  the  above  letter)  purported 
to  be  issued  by  the  Chancellor  to 
the  Yeoman  Bedell  of  Law  in 
the  University,  commanding  him 
to  cite  the  Eev.  Benjamin 
Jowett,  &c., '  to  appear  before  our 
Vice-Chancellor  or  his  Assessor 
...  to  answer  to  certain  articles 
to  be  administered  and  objected 
to  him  by  virtue  of  our  office 
concerning  the  reformation  and 
correction  of  his  manners  and 
excesses,  but  more  especially  for 
infringing  the  Statutes  and  privi- 
leges of  the  University  by  having 
published  ...  a  certain  book 
entitled  The  Epistles  of  St.  Paul, 


&c.,  &c. :  also  in  a  book  called 
Essays  and  Reviews  a  certain 
article  .  .  .  entitled  "  On  the  In- 
terpretation of  Scripture  "  ;  and 
by  having  in  such  book  and  such 
article  .  .  .  advisedly  promul- 
gated .  .  .  certain  erroneous  and 
strange  doctrines  .  .  .  contrary 
to  and  inconsistent  with  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church  of 
England. .  .  . 

Prayer. 

'  On  legal  proof  being  made  of 
the  charges,  the  said  Professor 
Jowett  be  duly  corrected  and 
punished  according  to  the  gravity 
of  the  offence  and  the  exigency 
of  the  Law  and  Statutes  of  the 
University.'  The  original  docu- 
ment is  in  the  possession  of 
Mr.  H.  A.  Pottinger,  of  Worcester 
College. 


312  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  x 

give  any  assistance  in  proving  the  publication  ? — he  cannot  be 
compelled. 

'I  am  sorry  to  give  you  trouble.  But  I  need  the  help  of 
friends  and  feel  the  value  of  such  a  friend  as  you.  I  must 
get  you,  when  you  return,  to  stir  up  the  Dean  and  Jackson  1 
and  everybody  to  help.  It  is  the  isolation  in  which  they 
have  left  me  which  makes  the  attack  possible. 

'  I  never  had  a  better  class  than  this  Term,  or  so  many  men 
coming  to  me  as  pupils,  I  think. 

' PS.  Can  A.  C.  T.  be  got  to  do  anything  in  the  matter? ' 

The  case  was  opened  in  the  Chancellor's  Court  on 
February  20,  1863,  before  Mountague  Bernard,  Esq., 
B.C.L.,  as  the  Vice-Chancellor's  Assessor. 

Parties  were  summoned  to  the  Apodyterium  (or 
'  Vestry ')  of  the  Convocation  House ;  but  the  Court 
actually  sat  in  what  was  commonly  called  the  '  Cock-pit,' 
where  viva  voce  examinations  used  to  be  held;  and 
the  place  was  of  course  crowded  with  undergraduates. 

The  prosecution  relied  partly  on  the  Church  Discipline 
Act,  but  chiefly  on  the  University  Statutes  respecting 
Tutors  and  Professors  and  the  powers  of  the  Vice-Chan- 
cellor. 

It  was  urged  for  the  defence  '  that  the  Court  has  no 
jurisdiction  in  the  matter.' 

Mr.  Pottinger,  who  was  Proctor  for  Professor  Jowett, 
based  his  protest  (i)  upon  section  23  of  the  Church 
Discipline  Act  of  1840  (3  &  4  Viet.  c.  86),  which  enacted 
that  no  prosecution  can  be  brought  against  a  clergyman 
except  according  to  that  Act :  (2)  on  the  special  privilege 
of  the  Regius  Professors  as  holding  of  the  Crown :  (3) 
on  the  absence  of  any  provision  for  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  Court  in  matters  spiritual :  (4)  on  the  absence  of  any 
precedent  for  a  judgement  of  the  Chancellor's  Court  in 
such  matters. 

1  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  Visitor  of  Balliol. 


186^1865]  Collapse  of  the  Suit  313 

The  Assessor  refused  to  admit  that  the  Court  had  no 
jurisdiction,  but  said  : — 

'If  I  have  jurisdiction  in  this  matter,  which  is  doubtful, 
it  is  a  jurisdiction  which  the  Statutes  do  not  imperatively 
bind  me  to  exercise  upon  this  citation  ...  I  shall  reject  the 
protest,  but  I  shall  refuse  to  order  Professor  Jowett  to  appear, 
and  shall  refuse  to  admit  articles  on  the  part  of  the  promoters. 
.  .  .  From  that  refusal  the  promoters  are  of  course  at  liberty 
to  appeal.' 

Mr.  Frederick  "W".  Farrer,  of  the  Messrs.  Farrer, 
Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  who  was  professionally  present  on 
the  occasion,  writes :  '  In  a  walk  with  Jowett  afterwards, 
he  was  very  low  at  the  decision.  I  remember  his  saying, 
"You  don't  know  Pusey;  he  has  the  tenacity  of  a  bull- 
dog." '  Jowett  wrote  to  a  trusted  friend  on  March  15  : — 

'  I  think  I  have  escaped  from  my  adversaries.  Their  only 
way  of  proceeding  now  is  by  an  appeal  to  the  Court  of  Queen's 
Bench  for  a  mandamus.  But  lawyers  seem  to  think  that 
there  is  so  little  chance  of  their  obtaining  the  mandamus  that 
I  should  doubt  whether  they  will  make  the  attempt.' 

The  question  was  not  finally  determined  until  the 
second  week  of  May, 

It  appears  that  in  their  anxiety  to  follow  Dr.  Phillimore's 
first  opinion,  the  three  prosecutors  overlooked  a  Statute 
(Tit.  XVII.  1 8)  which  required  them  to  appeal,  if  at  all, 
to  the  House  of  Congregation ;  and  they  consulted 
counsel  again  as  to  the  expediency  of  applying  for  a 
mandamus.  Under  all  the  circumstances  the  advice  of 
Dr.  Phillimore  and  Mr.  J.  D.  Coleridge  was  adverse  to 
their  taking  that  step.  And  the  withdrawal  of  further 
proceedings  was  intimated  to  the  Vice-Chancellor  in  a 


314  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  x 

letter  from  C.  A.  Ogilvie,  E.  B.  Pusey,  and  C.  A.  Heurtley, 
the  Prosecutors  in  the  case,  dated  Christ  Church,  May  8. 

The  Vice-Chancellor,  Dr.  Lightfoot  of  Exeter,  on 
May  ii  sent  a  copy  of  the  letter  to  Jowett,  who  lost 
no  time  in  forwarding  it  to  his  mother. 

In  March,  1863,  on  the  evident  collapse  of  this  vexa- 
tious suit,  Stanley  returned  to  the  charge  about  the 
salary,  with  a  motion  in  Council,  which  was  lost  by 
a  narrow  majority.  Next  autumn  Dr.  Pusey,  in  his  char- 
acter of  Pacificus,  again  endeavoured  at  once  to  obviate 
the  increasing  odium  against  his  party,  and  to  satisfy 
an  exacting  conscience,  by  proposing  a  form  of  Statute 
according  to  which  the  salary  of  the  Greek  Professor 
was  to  be  made  up  to  £400  from  the  University  Chest, 
until  such  time  as  other  provision  should  be  made, 
on  the  understanding  that  the  University  shall  be  held 
to  have  pronounced  no  judgement  upon  his  writings,  in  so 
far  as  they  touch  the  Catholic  Faith.  This  arrangement 
had  been  formerly  suggested  by  Mr.  Keble,  and  was  now 
accepted  by  Stanley.  Jowett  himself  seems  to  have  hoped 
that  it  would  succeed.  Having  passed  Congregation  by 
a  good  majority,  it  was  submitted  to  Convocation  on 
March  8,  1864.  But  Dr.  Pusey  found  that  it  is  easier 
to  raise  a  storm  than  to  allay  it.  Many  of  those  in 
the  University  who  had  hitherto  supported  him  saw 
clearly  the  inconsistency  of  the  measure,  and  the  futility 
of  the  reservation ;  and  their  appeal  to  the  country 
M.  A.'s  proved  for  once  more  potent  than  his  own.  The 
stalwart  Archdeacon,  George  Anthony  Denison,  stood 
forth  manfully  as  the  champion  of  the  opposition,  and 
strongly  protested  in  Latin  against  the  proposed  Statute. 
A  curious  incident  occurred,  characteristic  of  the  flurry 
and  excitement  which  had  seized  the  whole  assembly. 


1860-1865]          Lord  Westbury's  Bill  315 

The  Senior  Proctor,  W.  Chambers  of  Worcester,  pro- 
claimed, 'Majori  parti  placet.'  Liddell  ran  with  the 
false  news  to  Jowett,  who  took  it  very  quietly.  But 
the  words  had  barely  escaped  the  Proctor's  lips,  when 
he  discovered  that  he  had  made  a  mistake,  'not  in 
time,  however,  to  prevent  a  burst  of  cheering  from 
the  undergraduates  and  friends  of  Professor  Jowett, 
which  being  continued  for  some  few  minutes,  left  the 
Proctor  in  a  very  unpleasant  position.'  The  Vice- 
Chancellor  after  some  difficulty  having  restored  order, 
the  Proctor  announced,  'Majori  parti  non  placet,' — the 
numbers  being :  non  placet  467,  placet  395  ;  majority 
against,  72.  The  result  was  received  with  loud  cheers 
from  the  opponents  of  the  Statute,  and  violent  hissing 
from  the  undergraduates'  gallery. 

This  Act  of  Convocation 1  raised  an  all  but  unanimous 
outcry  in  the  public  Press,  with  copious  correspondence 
in  the  Times  and  other  newspapers,  the  most  remarkable 
feature  of  which  was  an  encounter  between  Dr.  Pusey 
and  Mr.  F.  D.  Maurice.  The  wheel  of  public  opinion 
had  come  fully  round ;  the  two  Essayists  who  were 
suspended  by  the  Court  of  Arches  had  been  finally 
acquitted  by  the  Judgement  of  the  Privy  Council, 
delivered  by  Lord  Westbury  on  February  8,  and  it  may 
be  noted  as  an  interesting  fact,  that  amongst  those  who 
came  at  great  inconvenience  to  vote  in  favour  of  the 
salary,  was  Dr.  Stephen  Lushington,  now  an  aged  man — 
though  not  so  aged  as  when  he  voted  afterwards  for 
Stanley's  appointment  as  Select  Preacher. 

At  this  juncture,  Lord  Chancellor  "Westbury  initiated 
a  new  phase  of  the  struggle  by  introducing  in  the  House 

1  Jowett  to  Stanley,  March  15,  except  the  noise  and  bustle. 
1864 :  '  I  see  nothing  to  lament  The  move  of  throwing  out  the 
in  the  business  of  last  Tuesday,  endowment  was  a  false  one.' 


316  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  x 

of  Lords  a  Bill  entitled,  An  Act  for  the  better  endoicment 
of  the  Regius  Professor  of  Greek  in  the  University  of  Oxford. 
By  this  it  was  proposed  that  the  first  Canonry  or  Prebend 
in  the  Chancellor's  gift  which  should  become  vacant  after 
the  passing  of  the  Act  should  be  annexed  to  the  Regius 
Professorship  of  Greek  in  the  University  of  Oxford. 
The  Bill  was  thrown  out  in  Committee  on  May  14, 
the  previous  question,  moved  by  Lord  Redesdale,  being 
carried  by  55  votes  against  25  ;  majority  30.  The  ob- 
jections which  appeared  to  have  most  weight  with  the 
Lords  were  that  endowment  by  a  Canonry  would  preclude 
the  appointment  of  a  layman  in  the  future,  and  that 
Canonries  were  now  designed  by  public  opinion  for 
purely  ecclesiastical  purposes.  Lord  Westbury's  argu- 
ment1 that  the  University  had  broken  faith  in  not 
endowing  the  Chair — so  repudiating  the  obligation  in- 
volved in  the  privilege  granted  to  the  University  Press, 
and  the  remission  of  the  Stamp  Duties — was  two- 
edged  and  provoked  some  opposition.  The  rejoinder 
was  obvious,  that  if  the  onus  lay  on  the  University,  the 
University  should  see  to  it;  and  Lord  Derby  (on  May 
23),  as  Chancellor  of  the  University,  somewhat  feebly 
denied  the  existence  of  any  such  obligation.  It  appears 
from  a  letter  to  Stanley  that  Jowett  himself  doubted 
the  wisdom  of  introducing  such  a  measure  in  Parliament 
at  all. 

On  October  31, 1864,  the  Vice-Chancellor,  Dr.  Lightfoot, 
started  a  fresh  proposal  to  make  up  the  salary  to  £400 
out  of  the  University  Chest,  in  a  form  of  Statute  which 
still  reserved  judgement  on  the  Theological  opinions  of 
the  Professor.  But  this  motion,  although  supported  by 
Dr.  Pusey,  who  had  now  become  the  defender  of  the 

1  Anticipated  by  Dr.  Stanley  and  Professor  Conington. 


1860-1865]          Mr.  Freeman  interposes  317 

Greek  Chair  against  George  Anthony  Denison,  was  lost 
in  the  Hebdomadal  Council  by  a  majority  of  one 1. 

Soon  afterwards  a  wholly  new  face  was  put  upon  the 
question  by  Mr.  E.  A.  Freeman 2,  then  residing  at  his 
place  of  Somerleaze  in  Somersetshire,  who  published  in 
pamphlet  form  a  letter  of  his  which  had  appeared  in  the 
Daily  News3. 

He  showed  that  in  a  letter  addressed  by  the  Dean  and 
Chapter  of  Christ  Church  to  Viscount  Palmerston,  which 
had  been  printed  in  the  '  Correspondence  respecting  the 
proposed  measures  of  improvement  in  the  Universities 
and  Colleges  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  presented  to  both 
Houses  of  Parliament  by  command  of  Her  Majesty,  1854,' 
the  following  statement  occurs  : — 

'  If  it  should  be  deemed  desirable  to  make  any  further 
disposal  of  the  College  funds  for  Academic  purposes,  the 
Dean  and  Chapter  would  respectfully  submit  that  it  is  the 
Eegius  Professor  of  Greek  who  is  best  entitled  to  benefit 
by  it.  For  of  the  ten  original  Chairs  founded  by  King  Henry 
VIII,  five  at  Oxford  and  five  at  Cambridge,  and  endowed  by 
that  monarch  with  stipends  of  £40  per  annum,  the  Greek 
Chair  of  Oxford  is  the  only  one  which  never  received  an 
additional  endowment; — while  the  Greek  Professor  at  Cam- 
bridge, by  virtue  of  a  recent  Act  of  Parliament,  holds  a  stall  at 
Ely,  his  brother  Professor  at  Oxford  only  receives  his  original 
£40  per  annum.  Unless  the  Crown  should  be  graciously 
pleased  to  make  some  other  provision  for  the  Chair  at  Oxford, 

1  Dr.  Stanley  was  by  this  time  March,  1858,  when  a  brother  Fel- 
Dean  of  Westminster,  and  had  low  of  Trinity,  Mr.  North  Finder 
therefore  no  longer  a  seat  in  the  (now  a  Canon  of  Windsor  and 
Council.  Rector  of  Greys),  wrote  to  him 

2  Afterwards  Professor  of  His-  that   '  almost    the    only  subject 
tory,  Oxford.  they '  (the  Hebdomadal  Council) 

3  '  The    Oxford     Regius    Pro-  '  can   agree   about    is    the    best 
fessorship    of    Greek,'    October,  means  of   starving    a   Professor 
1864.    Mr.   Freeman's  attention  with  whom  they  do  not  happen 
had  been  called  to  the  subject  in  to  concur.' 


318  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett          [CHAP,  x 

the  Dean  and  Chapter  would  propose  that  they  should  be 
empowered  to  set  apart  an  estate  of  the  value  of  between  .£300 
and  £400  per  annum,  of  which  the  lease  is  now  running  out, 
and  that  upon  the  next  avoidance  of  the  Greek  Chair,  the  same 
estate  should  be  made  over  to  the  new  Professor  and  his 
successors.' 

The  Historian  proceeded  to  show  the  reasonableness 
of  this  proposal,  which  lie  characterized  as  especially 
creditable  on  the  part  of  a  corporate  body,  from  whom 
fair  dealing  in  such  matters  was  not  always  to  be  ex- 
pected. King  Henry's  manifest  intention  had  been  that 
the  estates  of  Christ  Church  should  provide  for  Eegius 
Professors  and  Canons  in  the  proportion  indicated  by  the 
original  charge  on  the  estates  of  £40  a  year  and  £25 
a  year  respectively. 

But  the  Chapter  had  the  right  of  administration  ;  and, 
as  Mr.  Freeman  with  characteristic  bluntness  adds — 

'  Wherever  money  stipends  have  to  be  paid  to  officers  of 
any  kind,  the  story  is  always  the  same  .  .  .  there  is  always 
some  class  of  people  receiving  a  less  proportion  of  the  cor- 
porate income  than  the  founder  meant  them  to  receive.  .  .  . 
The  old  Bishops  who  founded  the  elder  Cathedrals,  more 
wise  in  their  generation,  guarded  against  this  evil  by  giving 
so  many  officers  separate  estates.  But  when  a  Chapter  has 
to  pay  certain  payments,  though  after  three  centuries  it  is 
very  plain  that  the  .£40  ought  to  be  increased  to  £400,  there 
is  no  particular  year  in  which  it  is  plain  that  .£40  should  be 
increased  to  £45  or  £45  to  .£50.  Had  King  Hariy,  instead  of 
granting  estates  to  Christ  Church,  granted  them  to  the  Univer- 
sity, the  Professor  would  now  have  his  proper  income.' 

The  burden  thus  fell  on  Christ  Church  (i)  of  showing 
why  the  proposal  made  in  1854  had  not  been  carried  out, 
and  (2)  why  it  should  not  now  be  renewed. 

On  the  part  of  Christ  Church  it  was  explained  (i)  that 
'  the  Commissioners  had  stated  their  opinion  that,  since 


1860-1865]    Mr.  Charles  Elton's  Discovery          319 

five  Canonries  of  Christ  Church  were  now  employed 
in  endowing  Professorships  (including  the  Margaret 
Professorship  of  Divinity),  enough  had  been  done 
out  of  the  funds  of  the  College  for  the  service  of  the 
University.'  The  Commissioners  preferred  therefore  to 
suppress  two  Canonries  for  the  better  endowment  of  the 
studentships  as  rearranged.  'And  (2)  that  it  had  not 
been  shown  that  the  Chapter  held  lands  specifically 
granted  for  the  purpose  of  paying  the  Professor.'  The 
Dean  added  that  if  this  could  be  shown,  he  would  '  im- 
mediately propose  to  the  Chapter  to  augment  the  stipend 
now  paid  to  the  Professor  according  to  a  fair  estimate 
of  the  changed  value  of  money  V 

This  promise  stimulated  the  investigations  of  another 
historical  inquirer,  Mr.  Charles  Elton,  formerly  of 
Balliol,  then  a  Fellow  of  Queen's,  who  discovered  the 
missing  link  by  tracing  the  conveyance  of  certain  lands 
which  (i)  had  been  granted  by  King  Henry  to  the 
Chapter  of  "Westminster  for  the  support  of  Professors  of 
Divinity,  Hebrew,  and  Greek,  and  (2)  when  that  Chapter 
declined  the  burden  and  restored  the  lands,  had  again 
been  granted  by  the  King  to  Christ  Church  under  a  cor- 
responding obligation2,  the  revenue  of  these  lands  (£120) 
exactly  covering  the  three  salaries  of  £40  each. 

The  authorities  at  Christ  Church  were  now  fairly 
brought  to  bay.  But  instead  of  at  once  carrying  out 
the  proposal  of  the  Dean,  they  consulted  counsel  as  to 
the  existence  of  a  legal  obligation.  None  such  was 
found  to  exist,  because  the  income  of  the  lands  was  not 
by  the  Instrument  of  Foundation  apportioned  in  certain 
proportions  against  different  objects,  but  given  subject 

1  Statement  by  H.  G.  Liddell,         2  See  Mr.  Elton's  letter  in  the 
Dean  of  Christ  Church,  November      Times  of  January  16,  1865. 
18,  1864. 


320  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett 

to  the  payment  of  certain  specific  sums,  and  because  on 
an  appeal  of  the  Students  in  1629  the  King  as  Visitor  had 
stated  that  the  improved  Revenues  of  the  House  wholly 
and  properly  belonged  to  the  Dean  and  Chapter. 

Armed  with  this  opinion,  and  refusing  as  a  body  to 
recognize  any  moral  obligation,  the  Dean  and  Chapter 
notwithstanding  on  the  ground  of  expediency  '  agreed  to 
take  such  measures  as  might  be  necessary  for  increasing 
the  yearly  salary  of  the  Regius  Professor  of  Greek  to 
the  sum  of  £500.'  This  resolution  was  intimated  by  the 
Dean  to  the  Vice-Chancellor  on  February  17,  1865  l. 

1  The  Dean  declares  (May,  1895)  had  great  difficulty  in  bringing 
that  even  at  the  last  moment  he  the  Chapter  to  agree  to  this. 


CHAPTER  XI 

TUTORIAL   WORK.       1860-1865 

(Aet.  43-48) 

PERSONAL  effects  of  controversy — Extracts  from  correspondence — 
Professorial  and  Tutorial  work  —Letters  from  W.  Pater  and  Professor 
G.  G.  Ramsay — 'Colonization' — George  Rankine  Luke— Society  at 
Clifton  and  in  Scotland — Vacation  parties — Letters. 

FT! HITS  ended  the  ten  years  of  deprivation,  by  which,  not 
-*-  to  dwell  here  upon  the  personal  aspect,  the  University 
had  not  lost,  while  Balliol  had  gained ;  but  Christ  Church, 
in  all  probability,  had  been  a  heavy  loser.  Had  she  earlier 
taken  thought  to  provide  an  adequate  endowment  for 
the  Greek  Chair,  she  might  have  enlisted  in  her  service 
an  educational  force  of  hitherto  unsuspected  potency. 

It  were  long  and  tedious  to  repeat  the  ingenious  argu- 
ments and  more  or  less  brilliant  witticisms  :  which  the 
conflict  had  evoked.  In  reviewing  them,  one  cannot  but 
be  struck  with  the  slight  account  that  was  taken  of 
devoted  educational  work  as  a  service  to  the  University. 
The  opinion  expressed  in  Congregation  that  Professor 
Jowett's  labours  might  have  earned  gratitude  from  indi- 
viduals, but  the  University  had  nothing  to  do  with  that, 
was  one  in  which  the  speaker  did  not  by  any  means 

1  That  which  attracted  most  attention,  'The  Evaluation  of  n?,' 
was  attributed  to  '  Lewis  Carroll.' 
VOL.    I.  Y 


322  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

stand  alone.  It  concerns  us  more  to  collect  some  hints 
of  the  way  in  which  Jowett  himself  regarded  the  whole 
business.  He  retained  outwardly,  all  through,  his  serene, 
unruffled  bearing.  J.  M.  Wilson,  Professor  of  Moral 
Philosophy,  the  most  staunch  of  Oxford  Liberals,  said  : 
'  If  Jowett  continues  to  take  these  things  as  he  is  doing, 
and  keeps  up  the  freshness  of  his  interest  in  high  subjects, 
he  will  be  a  great  man.'  But  he  was  not  really  apathetic. 
Amongst  many  other  expedients,  it  had  been  suggested 
that  a  new  Professorship  of  Greek  might  be  endowed 
with  a  Fellowship  at  Corpus  or  St.  John's,  and  that  Jowett 
might  be  appointed  to  it.  I  referred  to  this  in  walking 
with  him  in  Christ  Church  meadow.  It  was  one  of  the 
only  two  occasions  on  which  I  have  known  him  shed 
tears.  '  I  shall  never  leave  Balliol,'  he  said. 

In  order  to  give  some  indication  of  the  personal 
feelings  which  at  the  time  were  hidden  from  the  world, 
I  will  here  insert  some  extracts  from  a  series  of  his 
familiar  letters  which  now  lies  before  me. 

1.  October  27,   1860.   '.  .  .  There  is  to  be  another  battle  at 
Oxford  about  the  endowment  of  the  Greek  Professorship.     If 
anything  good  happens  to  me,  I  will  write  and  tell  you.     But 
I  do  not  much  expect  that  they  will  succeed.     For  five  years 
I  have  had  only  a  nominal  salary.     One  of  my  friends  asks 
whether  I  don't  like  the  idea   of  being  a   Martyr.     Indeed 
I  don't ;  it  is  extremely  inconvenient.' 

2.  January  22,  1861.     'Do  you   see  the   Quarterly  Review? 
If  you  do,  you  will  see  no  good  about  me.     The  book  called 
Essays  and   Reviews  has  been   making  an   unreasonable  stir 
among  the  intolerant  world.     I  am  astonished  at  the  careless- 
uess  about  truth  which  there  is  in  the  Church  of  England. 
If  it  goes  on,  it  will  lead  to  utter  unbelief  among  intellectual 
men.     I  mean  to   be  quiet,   and  take  no   notice  of  attacks. 
I  used  to  be  grieved  to  find  how  readily  my  friends  chimed 
in  with  the  attack  (though  in  private  they  agreed  with  me) — 
I   suppose  on  the  principle   that  there  is  something  in  the 


1860-1865]    Extracts  from  Correspondence          323 

misfortunes  of  one's  best  friends  not  wholly  unpleasing.  But 
after  the  first  bite  or  sting,  the  power  of  feeling  is  almost  lost ; 
it  is  worth  while  to  be  attacked  for  the  sake  of  being  free 
from  attacks  for  the  rest  of  your  life.' 

3.  February  8,  1861.     (To  Dean   Elliot.)     'A  new  attempt 
is  to  be  made  to  endow  the  Greek  Professorship  with  £400 
a  year,  which  the   University  is  to   consent   to  give  at  the 
instigation  of  Dr.  Pusey,  on  the  condition  of  the  Crown  handing 
over  the   Patronage  to  a  Board  consisting  of  three   Cabinet 
Ministers  and    the  Chancellor    and   Vice-Chancellor   of    the 
University.     Having  been  appointed  by  the  Crown,  I  cannot 
say  that  I  like  the  Crown  giving  up  the  nomination  to  an 
important  position,  and  wrote  to  say  so,  that  the  Government 
might   know  the   exact  state  of  the  case  ;    but  having  been 
hard-worked  and  starved  for  five  years,  I  feel  that  it  would 
be  quixotic  in  me  to  oppose  what  the  Government  sees  no 
objection  to. — I  think  however  the  measure,  though  agreed 
to  by  the  Government  and  the  Council,  is  very  likely  to  come 
to  grief  in  the  House  of  Commons1.' 

4.  March  22,    1861.     (To  Mrs.   Tennyson.)     'I   cannot   but 
express  to  you  what  I  feel,  especially  in  all  this  tumult,  that  it 
is  the  greatest  blessing  and  good  to  me  to  have  friends  like 
you  and  Mr.  Tennyson,  who  are  so  true  and  affectionate  to  me.' 

5.  March  22,  1861.     (To  F.  T.  Palgrave.)     '  Many  thanks  to 
you  for  caring  whether  I  am  troubled  about  the  "persecution." 
I  think  I  am  not  deceiving  myself  in  saying  that  I  don't  mind 
about  it.     Annoyances  in  College,  which  I  sometimes  receive, 
trouble  me  more.' 

6.  April  i,  1861.     (To  Dean  Elliot.)     '  I  feel  a  great  and  in- 
creasing responsibility  about  this  Spirit  which  has  come  (not 
at  our  call)  from  the  vasty  deep.     But  I  have  had,  thank  God, 
no  pain  or  annoyance  from  the  attacks  on  me,  though   the 
clergyman  of  this  parish  (Freshwater)  does  call  me  and  others 
"Judas  Iscariot  "  in  his  sermons.' 

7.  April  i,  1861.     '  No  one  ever  stood  by  a  friend  better  than 
Dr.  Stanley  has  stood  by  me  in  this  tumult.     While  he  lives 

1  P-  3°3-     It  was   thrown   out      averred,  through  some  '  Liberals' 
in    Convocation— as    Dr.    Pusey      having  joined  the  Opposition. 

Y   2 


324  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

I   shall   certainly  not  be   ashamed   when   I   speak  with  my 
enemies  in  the  gate.' 

8.  April  16,   1861.     'I  think   the  "tumult"  has   dwindled 
to    a    calm,    and    therefore    I    shall    say    no    more     about 
it.     I  can  only  hope  that  some  good  may  spring  out  of  all 
this  notoriety  (you  should  see  the  letter  of  the  Bishops  and 
the  names  of  those  whom  it  condemns  printed  on  an  enormous 
placard  which  was  sent  me  the  other  day),  and  I  am  very 
grateful  to  friends  who  show  me  sympathy  in  all  this  row.  .  .  . 

'Attacks  on  the  Utilitarians  have  their  place  and  their 
use:  only  they  were  not  meant  for  people  who  "revel  in 
Scepticism 1"  like  me.  Is  it  not  very  Irish  of  them  to  say  so?' 

9.  April  27,  1861.     (To  Sir  A.  Grant.)     '  I  cannot  tell  you 
what  good  and  pleasure  I  have  in  Stanley's  active  help  and 
support.' 

10.  May  9,  1861.     (To  Stanley.)     'I  won't  trouble  you  with 
reflections   about   the   event   of  Tuesday2.     I   am   glad   that 
Pusey  behaved  well.  ...  I  should  not  altogether  despair  of 
his  mind,  having  exhausted  itself  with  religious  experiences, 
taking  a  healthier  tone. 

'  I  hope  I  shall  live  to  see  a  better  state  of  feeling  in  Oxford, 
in  which  those  who  hold  liberal  opinions  in  religion  or  in 
University  matters  will  not  have  the  troubles  that  I  have  had. ' 

11.  August  4,  1861.     'It  was  very  good  of  you  to  tell  me 
the  kind  things  Mrs.  Somerville  said  of  me.     Of  course  I  don't 
deserve  them,  but  I  have  a  sort  of  hope  that  I  may  deserve 
such  fine  things  to  be  said  some  day,  if  I  devote  myself  to 
the  truth  and  to  the  good  of  my  pupils.     Mr.    Carlyle  says 
"men  put  there  as  sentinels  should   be  shot  instantly";  so 
I  must  balance  Mrs.  Somerville  with  him.' 

12.  November,  1861.     (To  Miss  Cobbe.)     'The  vote  of  last 
Tuesday,  deferring  indefinitely  the   endowment   of  my  Pro- 
fessorship, makes    me   feel  that  life  is  becoming  a   serious 
business    to    me ;     not    that    I    complain ;    the    amount    of 
sympathy  and    support   which    I    have    received    has    been 
enough   to    sustain    any    one,    if    they   needed    it.  ...  But 

1  Saturday  Review,    March    9,      seems    almost    to  revel    in  un- 
1861,  on  '  Intolerance  at  Oxford ' :      certainty  and  doubt.' 
'  Mr.  Jowett's  genius  is  one  which          2  p.  304. 


1860-1865]    Extracts  from  Correspondence  325 

my  friends  are  sanguine  in  imagining  they  will  succeed  here- 
after. Next  year  it  is  true  that  they  will  get  a  small  majority 
in  Congregation.  This  however  is  of  no  use,  as  the  other 
party  will  always  bring  up  the  country  clergy  in  Convocation. 
I  have  therefore  requested  Dr.  Stanley  to  take  no  further  steps 
in  the  Council  on  the  subject ;  it  seems  to  me  undignified  to 
keep  the  University  squabbling  about  my  income  V 

13.  1862.     (To  Stanley.)     'As  to  "  complicity  "  with  Baden 
Powell  or  Wilson,  I  do  not  wish  to  be  separated  from  them  or 
any  other  professing  Christian  man  who  cares  for  truth.     I  think 
this  is  right  in  the  long  run,  though  it  leads  to  immediate  mis- 
representation. 

'  I  have  no  personal  feeling  about any  more  than  about 

2    (not    from    Christian   charity   or    magnanimity),    but 

because  it  seems  to  me  absurd  to  allow  personal  feelings  to 
come  into  public  questions.' 

14.  July  19,  1862.     (To  Stanley.)     'I  think  I  had  an  average 
of  between  fifty  and  sixty  at  the  lecture  on  Thucydides  last 
Term,  more  at  first  and  fewer  at  last :  and  about  forty  brought 
me  exercises  in  Greek  and  English. 

'  It  gives  me  pleasure  to  see  that  I  am  in  a  better  position 
now  than  I  was  a  year  ago  at  Oxford.  And  I  cannot  feel  or 
express  too  often  to  you  and  to  every  one,  how  much  I  owe 
it  to  your  courage  and  generosity. 

'May  I  not  be  wanting  to  myself.' 

15.  February,  1863.     (To  Mrs.  Tennyson.)     'Thank  God,  I 
fight  my  enemies  with  a  cheerful  heart 3.     On  Friday  at  Oxford 
we  object  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court,  which  is  trying  to 
smuggle  in   an  ecclesiastical  cause  under  colour  of  a  breach 
of  the  Statutes  of  the  University.     If  the  Assessor  refuses  to 
hear  the  cause,  all  will  be  at  an  end  ;  if  not,  I  am  advised 
to  apply  to  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench  for  an  inhibition  of 
their  proceeding.     Will  you  give  my  best  love  to  Alfred  and 
the  children  ?    I  certainly  believe  that  no  harm  will  come  of 
the  matter.' 

16.  March,   1863.     (To  Mrs.  Tennyson.)     'I  think  I  am  in 

1  This  letter  has  been  published          2  The  writers  in  the  Saturday 
in  the  Autobiography  of  Frances      Review  and  the  Westminster. 
Power  Coble,  vol.  i.  p.  353.  3  See  pp.  311-314. 


326  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

a  better  plight  than  when  I  wrote  to  you  last ;  and  have  only 
now  to  fear  the  appeal  to  the  Queen's  Bench,  which  is  not  very 
likely  to  succeed.  ...  I  cannot  but  be  greatly  pleased  and 
inspirited  at  the  support  my  old  friends  have  given  me  in  the 
matter  of  this  stupid  prosecution.' 

17.  December  21,  1863.     (To  Mrs.  Tennyson.)     '  I  mean  to  do 
a  great  deal  more  mischief  now  that  they  are  going  to  give 
me  some  money1.' 

18.  December  25,  1863.     (To  his  mother.)     '  You  and  Emily 
will  be  glad  to  hear  .  .  .  that  there  is  a  prospect  of  their 
paying  me  my  income,  with  a  chance  of  the  arrears2  hereafter. 
...  I  thought  you  would  like  to  hear  of  this  on  your  birth- 
day, and  therefore  write.' 

19.  March  12,  1864.     (To  Mrs.  Tennyson.)     '  I  am  truly  sorry 
that  so  kind  a  friend  as  you  are  should  be  disappointed.     I 
believe  the  Judgement 8  was  the  cause  of  the  result ;  if  so,  there 
is  ample  compensation.' 

20.  July  12,  1864.     (To  Sir  A.  Grant.)     '  As  for  myself,  I  get 
on  well  except  as  to  personal  interests ;    and  those,  I  really 
feel,  are  lost  in  higher  ones.     I  have  in  the  thought  of  my  old 
pupils  in  India  and  elsewhere  a  great  deal  to  make  me  happy. ' 

21.  February  19,  1865.     '  This  is  the  last  you  will  ever  hear 
of  this  matter.    I  am  greatly  indebted  to  some  of  my  young 
friends,   who  without  my  knowledge  hunted  this  matter  out 
and  assailed  the  Dean  and  Chapter  in  the  newspapers.' 

22.  February  27,  1865.     '  I  wish  to  thank  you  for  your  kind 
letter  of  congratulations  which  gave  me  great  pleasure.     I  am 
glad  that  the  world  will  cease  to  hear  any  longer  about  the 
Greek  Professorship.     As  to  being  a  Martyr,  I  am  afraid  that 
is  impossible,  unless  you  are  bodily  burned  in  the  flesh ;  and 
no  pious  old  woman  can  be  found,  "in  holy  simplicity,"  to 
pile   faggots   nowadays,   though   they  are  not  indisposed  to 
practise  lesser  modes  of  annoyance.     Speaking  quite  seriously, 
I  am  sure  that  I  place  the  support  and  sympathy  that  I  have 
received  far  above  the  money,  and  therefore  I  consider  I  have 

1  p.  314.  the  arrears. 

2  This  was  never  realized  :  un-          3  Lord  Westbury's,  February  8, 
less  the  grant  of  £500  in  place      1864.     See  p.  315. 

of   £400  was    meant    to    cover 


1860-1865]  Tutorial  Work  327 

been  a  gainer  on  the  whole.  I  am  delighted  that  my  friends 
are  so  pleased,  and  the  money  will  really  enable  me  to  do 
work  more  efficiently  than  before.' 

The  best  proof  of  his  '  happy  nature x '  and  firm  will  is 
the  unimpeded  energy  with  which  he  had  been  throwing 
himself  all  this  while  into  his  educational  and  literary 
labours.  These  went  on  precisely  as  before,  only  with 
increased  assiduity,  as  if  nothing  particular  were  hap- 
pening in  the  world  outside. 

The  work  both  of  his  Tutorship  and  his  Professorship 
became  more  and  more  interesting  to  him.  Among  his 
pupils  at  Balliol  during  these  years  were  men  of  marked 
ability,  and  also  men  whose  position  in  life,  com- 
bined as  it  was  with  intellectual  promise,  made  their 
education  of  exceptional  importance  to  themselves  and 
others.  Amongst  these  were  Lord  Duncan2,  Lord 
Boringdon 3,  Lord  Kerry 4,  and  others  whom  it  is  super- 
fluous to  name.  Jowett  felt  to  the  full  the  responsibilities 
involved  in  this.  Already  men  accused  him  of  flattering 
the  great.  Attentive  readers  of  the  letters  in  these 
volumes  will  perceive  the  hollowness  of  the  imputation. 

But  they  will  also  perceive  the  obligations  which 
he  laid  upon  himself,  or  which  he  conceived  the  whole 
position  to  involve.  '  If  I  had  not  hampered  myself 
with  these  ties,'  he  once  said  to  me,  '  I  should  be  all  over 
Europe,  collating  MSS.'  And  in  writing  to  another 
friend,  excusing  himself  from  foreign  travel :  '  If  I  had 

gone  abroad, would  have  done  nothing,  at  the  most 

critical  moment  of  his  life.' 

In  other  ways  also  these  were  brilliant  years  for 
Balliol.  Atalanta  in  Calydon  was  written  about  this  time, 
and  for  many  years  to  come  Balliol  was  never  without  its 

1  p.  262.  3  Earl  of  Morley. 

2  Earl  of  Camperdown.  4  The  Marquis  of  Lansdowne. 


328  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

poet  (or  poets  rather).  Not  that  as  a  rule  Jowett's  in- 
fluence lay  in  that  direction.  In  speaking  of  some  one 
who  had  been  doing  well  in  a  profession,  he  would  say  : 
'  At  College  he  took  to  poetry  and  that  sort  of  nonsense.' 
But  he  rejoiced  in  any  real  success ;  and  although  the 
genius  of  Swinburne,  the  ever-active  brain  of  J.  A. 
Symonds,  and  the  vigorous  individuality  of  John  Nichol 
were  largely  independent  of  his  teaching,  they  yet  owed 
to  him  what  was  more  valuable  still,  the  blessing  of 
a  friendship  which  never  wavered,  which  gave  unstinted 
help  at  critical  moments  both  in  youth  and  after  life, 
and  would  make  any  sacrifice  of  leisure  and  of  ease 
to  serve  them.  In  former  days  he  had  said,  on  its  being 
suggested  that  a  poet  might  come  forth  from  Balliol, '  If 
a  poet  came  here,  we  could  never  hold  him.' 

A  few  words  may  be  added  parenthetically  on  his 
supposed  worship  of  genius  and  of  success.  The  former 
imputation  was  more  rife  in  earlier  years,  the  latter 
afterwards,  when  his  own  position  was  now  assured. 
Both  really  turned  on  one  peculiarity :  that  in  judging 
of  persons  and  in  determining  his  relation  to  them, 
he  never  separated  their  individual  characteristics  from 
the  thought  of  what  they  might  effect.  This  was  equally 
his  way  of  regarding  his  own  life  and  the  lives  of 
others.  But  neither  in  his  choice  of  friends,  nor  in  his 
treatment  of  those  with  whom  he  had  to  do,  can  it  be 
truly  said  that  he  was  ever  influenced  by  any  sordid  or 
self-regarding  motive.  If  he  sometimes  argued  as  if  men 
of  genius  should  not  be  judged  according  to  common 
rules,  or  that  allowance  should  be  made  for  irregularities 
which  seem  inseparable  from  an  exalted  station,  his 
estimate  of  the  worthiest  aims  and  his  ideal  of  character 
and  conduct  remained  unaltered.  Nor  is  it  a  wholly 
insignificant  circumstance  that  he  knew  from  experience 


1860-1865]  Professorial  Work  329 

what  consequences  may  ensue  from  an  ineffectual,  albeit 
blameless  life. 

In  College  meetings  he  still  contended  for  the  objects 
which  he  thought  desirable,  supported  by  an  increasing 
minority,  to  which  the  powerful  aid  of  the  Hon. 
E.  Lyulph  Stanley  was  added  in  1863. 

The  Professorial  lectures  continued  as  before,  chiefly 
in  connexion  with  his  work  on  Plato.  A  pleasing 
testimony  to  his  labours  as  Greek  Professor  in  1860-62 
was  given  me  by  the  late  Mr.  Walter  Pater,  in  a  letter 
which  has  since  acquired  a  pathetic  interest  through  the 
writer's  too  early  death : — 

B.N.C.,  May  6,  1894. 
MY  DEAR  CAMPBELL, 

You  have  asked  me  to  write  a  few  lines  '  describing  the 
impression  Jowett  made  on  out-College,  i.  e.  non-Balliol  men/ 
when  he  taught  the  University  for  nothing.  Like  many 
others  I  received  much  kindness  and  help  from  him  when 
I  was  reading  for  my  degree  (1860  to  1862)  and  afterwards. 
A  large  number  of  his  hours  in  every  week  of  Term-time  must 
have  been  spent  in  the  private  teaching  of  undergraduates, 
not  of  his  own  College,  over  and  above  his  lectures,  which 
of  course  were  open  to  all.  They  found  him  a  very  en- 
couraging but  really  critical  judge  of  their  work — essays,  and 
the  like, —  Listening  from  7.30-10.30  to  a  pupil,  or  a  pair 
of  pupils,  for  half  an  hour  in  turn.  Of  course  many  availed 
themselves  of  the,  I  believe,  unprecedented  offer  to  receive 
exercises  in  Greek  or  English  in  this  way,  and  on  the  part 
of  one  whose  fame  among  the  youth,  though  he  was  then 
something  of  a  recluse,  was  already  established.  Such  fame 
rested  on  his  great  originality  as  a  writer  and  thinker.  He 
seemed  to  have  taken  the  measure  not  merely  of  all  opinions, 
but  of  all  possible  ones,  and  to  have  put  the  last  refinements 
on  literary  expression.  The  charm  of  that  was  enhanced  by 
a  certain  mystery  about  his  own  philosophic  and  other 
opinions.  You  know  at  that  time  his  writings  were  thought 
by  some  to  be  obscure.  These  impressions  of  him  had  been 


330  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

derived  from  his  Essays  on  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  which  at  that 
time  were  much  read  and  pondered  by  the  more  intellectual 
sort  of  undergraduates.  When  he  lectured  on  Plato,  it  was 
a  fascinating  thing  to  see  those  qualities  as  if  in  the  act  of 
creation,  his  lectures  being  informal,  unwritten,  and  seemingly 
unpremeditated,  but  with  many  a  long-remembered  gem  of 
expression,  or  delightfully  novel  idea,  which  seemed  to  be 
lying  in  wait  whenever,  at  a  loss  for  a  moment  in  his  some- 
what hesitating  discourse,  he  opened  a  book  of  loose  notes. 
They  passed  very  soon  into  other  note-books  all  over  the 
University ;  the  larger  part,  but  I  think  not  all  of  them,  into 
his  published  introductions  to  the  Dialogues.  Ever  since 
I  heard  it,  I  have  been  longing  to  read  a  very  dainty  dialogue 
on  language,  which  formed  one  of  his  lectures,  a  sort  of  '  New 
Cratylus.'  Excuse  the  length  to  which  my  'brief  remarks 
have  run.  On  this  closely-written  sheet  there  is  only  room 
to  sign  myself 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

WALTER  PATER. 

Professor  G.  G.  B-amsay,  of  Glasgow,  with  reference 
to  the  same  period,  after  a  similar  description  of  the 
evenings  in  Jowett's  study,  adds : — 

'  An  acquaintance  was  thus  begun  which  was  of  interest 
and  value  to  us  throughout  our  lives.  His  criticisms  were 
kindly  and  encouraging  ;  but  it  was  a  severe  ordeal  to  have 
to  listen  to  them,  especially  in  the  presence  of  others.  You 
did  not  feel  exactly  that  you  could  resent  anything  that  he 
said  :  and  he  took  you  at  your  word  when  you  replied  "Cer- 
tainly not"  to  his  not  unusual  query,  "You  don't  mind  my 
saying  what  I  think  about  this  essay  ?  "  When  the  criticism 
came,  it  was  often  pretty  cutting,  always  curt,  simple  and 
fundamental ;  his  eyes  twinkled  with  satisfaction  when  you 
made  a  point  in  which  you  agreed  with  him  .  .  .  not  less 
when  he  made  some  point  himself  in  which  he  felt  he  could 
carry  you  along  with  him.  But  he  never  struck  undeservedly, 
never  harshly,  unless  he  detected  a  flavour  of  impudence  :  he 
never  seemed  to  wound  you,  but  only  to  put  into  your  hands 


1860-1865]  George  Rankine  Luke  331 

a  weapon  for  discovering  that  you  were  a  fool.  To  most  men 
the  discovery  was  invaluable,  and  constituted  the  great  in- 
tellectual effect  of  his  criticisms.  Some  few  were  sceptical 
and  resentful,  and  these  usually  would  not  return.' 

The  '  colonization '  of  other  Colleges  by  Balliol  men  had 
begun  to  make  itself  distinctly  felt ;  and  Jowett  watched 
with  keen  interest  the  growing  influence  of  some  of  his 
pupils,  especially  of  Mr.  George  Rankine  Luke,  who  had 
gained  a  senior  Studentship  at  Christ  Church  in  1860.  and 
held  a  Tutorship  there  until  his  lamented  death  on 
March  3,  1862.  He  was  the  son  of  an  Edinburgh  trades- 
man, and,  after  a  distinguished  career  at  the  Edinburgh 
Academy l  and  Glasgow  University,  had  come  to  Balliol 
with  a  Snell  Exhibition  in  1855.  After  obtaining  a  senior 
Studentship  at  Christ  Church,  he  devoted  himself  to  his 
Tutorial  labours  there  with  the  most  enthusiastic  energy 
and  extraordinary  success.  When  told  that  Luke  was 
killing  himself  with  work,  Jowett  said,  with  a  kind  of 
fatherly  pride,  '  Young  men  don't  die  so  easily.'  Young 
Luke  became  subject  to  fits  of  giddiness,  however,  and 
was  upset  in  his  skiff  upon  the  river.  When  the  body 
was  brought  home,  his  friend  Nichol,  wild  with  grief, 
went  straight  to  Jowett's  rooms.  "With  eager  promptitude 
and  resolute  calmness,  Jowett  set  himself  at  once  to 
prepare  an  obituary  notice  of  his  friend,  which  appeared 
in  the  Times  next  day.  Some  passages  in  this  are  so 
expressive  of  his  own  habitual  thoughts  that  they  are 
inserted  here : — 

'  During  the  last  two  years  he  had  been  quietly  growing  in 
reputation,  and  was  exercising  a  great  and  beneficent  influence 
in  the  University  by  devoted  and  unremitting  attention  to 

1  I  was    present    once  at  an      voce  by  A.  C.  Tait,  then  Dean  of 
examination    of    the     Academy      Carlisle. — L.  C. 
where  Luke  was  examined  viva 


332  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

his  pupils.  The  secret  of  this  influence,  which  was  exerted 
over  his  contemporaries  as  well  as  his  pupils,  lay  in  the  un- 
common energy  and  intensity  of  his  character,  which  blended 
with  a  singular  affectionateness.  .  .  .  Though  instinctively 
a  lover  of  truth,  he  was  never  led  from  his  practical  duties  by 
vague  speculation.  The  supposed  theological  difficulties  of 
Oxford  passed  through  his  mind,  but  certainly  left  no  hurtful 
impression  on  his  strong  and  innocent  nature.  A  few  days 
ago  he  had  said  to  a  friend  that  he  was  not  afraid  to  die  at 
any  moment.  Nor  was  such  a  feeling,  combined  with  such 
a  life,  in  any  degree  a  presumptuous  one.  .  .  .  He  understood 
perfectly  the  secret  of  success  as  a  College  Tutor.  The  secret 
is  chiefly  devotion  to  the  work,  and  consideration  for  the 
characters  of  young  men.  No  young  man  is  really  hostile 
to  one  who  is  labouring,  evening  as  well  as  morning,  wholly 
for  his  good — who  troubles  him  only  about  the  weightier 
matters — who  knows  how  to  sympathize  with  his  better 
mind — who  can  venture  to  associate  with  him  without 
formality  or  restraint.  To  men  like  Mr.  Luke,  the  difficulties 
of  maintaining  authority  in  a  College  absolutely  disappear. 
The  feelings  with  which  the  young  are  capable  of  regarding 
such  a  man,  and  the  true  estimate  they  form  of  him,  are  indeed 
surprising.  .  .  .  No  one  would  do  more  for  a  friend  or  think 
less  about  it. 

'His  work  is  left  unfinished,  and  has  to  be  continued  by 
others.  Those  who  come  after  him  will  find  that  their  only 
chance  of  raising  the  great  aristocratic  seminary  with  which 
he  was  connected  to  its  rightful  position  in  public  estimation 
is  the  performance  of  services  like  his,  with  the  same  un- 
tiring energy,  the  same  regardlessness  of  self.  In  the  fulfil- 
ment of  such  a  duty  to  the  University  and  to  the  nation, 
the  lives  of  many  good  or  even  great  men  will  not  be  spent 
in  vain.' 

The  grief  for  Luke's  death  was  shared  by  Stanley,  who 
had  witnessed  his  success  at  Christ  Church.  He  made  an 
affecting  reference  to  him  in  the  sermon  on  '  Great  Oppor- 
tunities' with  which  he  bade  farewell  to  Christ  Church  and 
to  Oxford  on  November  29,  1863.  This  is  mentioned 


1860-1865]  Summer  Haunts — Analysis  of  Plato  333 

in   a   letter  from  Caird T  to   Nichol,  which  reflects  the 
feeling  of  the  younger  graduates  at  this  time : — 

'How  I  wish  you  had  been  up  to  hear  Stanley's  noble 
sermon  on  Sunday  last,  with  its  picture  of  Oxford  as  it  is  and 
as  it  might  be,  and  above  all  to  hear  his  eloquent  tribute  to 
our  dear  friend.  .  .  .  The  University  turned  out  to  hear  it 
better  than  I  have  ever  seen  them  do  before.  I  said  to  Jowett 
after,  "  Who  will  sing  us  battle-songs  any  more  ?  "  "We  must 
carry  on  the  fight  though,"  said  he,  looking  as  pertinacious 
and  as  saintly-wicked  as  usual.' 

Jowett  was  eager  to  complete  his  edition  of  the 
Republic,  'to  get  rid  of  Plato  and  return  to  Theology,' 
and  he  actually  took  leave  of  absence  for  the  Summer 
Term  of  1861,  with  this  object  in  view.  But  his  literary 
work  was  being  more  and  more  crowded  into  vacation- 
time.  In  Term-time  he  could  only  direct  his  reading 
with  a  view  to  it,  and  to  the  preparation  of  his  lectures. 
For  the  sake  of  Plato,  and  of  a  select  number  of  his 
pupils,  including  some  old  friends,  he  resided  for  long 
spells  in  summer  at  some  country  place — chiefly  during 
these  years  at  Whitby  (1861),  Braemar  (1862),  High 
Force  in  Teesdale  (1863),  Askrigg  in  "Wensleydale  (1864)  2, 
Pitlochry,  and  Tummel  Bridge.  The  Plato,  which  he 
had  hoped  to  finish  in  a  year  or  two,  still  remained  on 
hand,  throwing  the  projected  works  on  Theology  more  and 
more  into  the  background.  In  revising  the  notes  to  the 
Republic,  it  had  occurred  to  him  that  a  complete  analysis 
of  the  Dialogues  would  form  a  suitable  '  Prolegomena ' 
to  his  book.  The  analysis,  as  he  conceived  it,  was  to  be 
a  sort  of  condensed  translation,  in  which  nothing  essential 
should  be  omitted,  and  even  the  force  of  connecting 

1  Now  Master  of  Balliol.  White.'    From  a  letter  of  1883. 

2  'Askrigg  was  recommended  to      White  was  the  author  of  A  Month 
me  by  an  old  fellow  named  Walter      in  Yorkshire,  &c. 


334  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

particles  should  be  preserved.  All  was  to  be  in  perfect 
English,  and  the  labour  spent  on  such  a  work  was 
naturally  great.  When  I  was  with  him  at  Askrigg,  in 
the  summer  of  1864,  he  was  struggling  with  the  analysis 
of  the  Parmenides  and  the  other  dialectical  dialogues. 
His  taste  in  language  was  becoming  more  and  more 
fastidious.  At  this  time  he  was  resolved  to  turn  every 
sentence  so  as  to  exclude  the  colourless  pronoun  'it.' 
I  troubled  him  with  the  remark  that  '  which '  was  not 
much  better,  and  one  or  other  was  inevitable.  After 
this  he  became  more  tolerant  of  'it,'  but  still  objected 
to  it,  except  in  the  impersonal  verb.  Finding  the  com- 
mentary sometimes  tedious,  he  used  to  say,  'I  am 
longing  to  get  at  the  more  general  treatment  of  the 
subject. ' 

While  speaking  of  our  Yorkshire  sojourn,  it  may  be 
worth  while  to  trace  the  course  of  a  day.  Breakfast 
was  not  very  early,  and  was  apt  to  be  unpunctual,  partly 
because  Jowett  would  take  a  pupil  or  a  friend,  Lord 
Kerry,  Lord  Boringdon,  or  Lord  Duncan,  for  a  walk 
and  talk.  Conversation  after  breakfast  lasted  some  time, 
and  it  was  well  after  ten  before  we  settled  to  work.  But 
the  work  continued  with  hardly  any  intermission  till 
dinner-time,  four  o'clock.  This  also  was  apt  to  be  a 
movable  feast,  as  Jowett  disliked  stopping  in  the  middle 
of  a  piece  of  writing,  and  sometimes  had  letters  to  finish. 
About  six  we  started  for  a  two  hours'  walk,  returning 
to  tea  at  eight,  and  work  was  resumed  before  nine  and 
continued  till  midnight.  Jowett  wrote  his  letters  at 
odd  times,  mostly,  I  suspect,  after  the  day's  task  was 
done.  Four  pages  of  fresh  writing  and  rather  more  of 
revision  were  his  quantum  for  the  day.  In  working 
with  him,  one  was  astonished  at  the  number  of  ways 
which  occurred  to  him  for  turning  a  particular  phrase. 


1860-1865]  Ascent  of  Loch-na-gar  335 

If,  holding  firmly  by  the  Greek,  I  objected  to  an  expres- 
sion, another  was  produced,  and  then  another  and  another, 
until  Greek  and  English  appeared  to  coincide.  But 
perhaps  the  one  last  hit  upon  would  be  afterwards  dis- 
carded, as  not  harmonizing  with  the  rhythm  or  colour 
of  the  whole.  This  protracted  labour  was  almost  finished, 
when  a  casual  remark  of  Pattison's  (I  think)  convinced 
him  that  the  analysis  could  never  be  complete,  and  that 
the  Eepublic,  at  all  events,  must  be  translated  in  full. 
As  he  proceeded  with  this  in  1865,  he  formed  the  resolu- 
tion of  translating  the  whole  of  Plato. 

But  to  return.  On  Sundays  the  work  was  so  far  laid 
aside  as  to  secure  attendance  at  morning  church,  and 
a  longer  walk  in  the  afternoon.  Lord  Camperdown  (then 
Lord  Duncan),  who  was  with  him  at  Braemar  in  1862 T, 
tells  how  one  Sunday  there  was  spent.  Jowett  decided 
to  climb  Loch-na-gar,  and  fixed  on  Sunday  for  the 
expedition.  Lord  Duncan  expected  to  start  early,  but 
Jowett  insisted  on  going  to  the  Kirk.  No  guide  being 
found  available  on  the  Sabbath,  they  had  to  make  their 
own  way,  and  the  shades  of  evening  were  falling  ere 
they  had  descended  far  from  the  summit.  Jowett  got 
very  tired  with  stumbling  in  and  out  of  the  peat  hags, 
and  his  companion  had  to  support  him,  while  feeling 
apprehensive  that  they  had  lost  the  path.  He  would 
only  take  one  sip  from  the  spirit-flask. 

At  this  point  they  heard  the  floundering  of  an  animal, 
which  for  a  moment  they  supposed  to  be  a  deer,  but 
Lord  Duncan  went  up  to  it  and  discovered  that  it  was 
a  pony  with  the  saddle  turned  right  round.  He  put  the 
saddle  straight,  but  Jowett  would  not  mount.  However, 
the  pony,  kept  moving  by  Lord  Duncan,  led  them 

1  His  other  companion  there  was  Mr.  G.  W.  Kekewich,  after- 
wards of  the  Education  Office. 


336  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

to  the  keeper's  lodge  at  Callater.  There,  the  ground 
being  smoother,  Jowett  consented  to  mount,  and  they 
got  back  safely.  The  fact  was  that  J.  M.  Wilson,  of 
Corpus,  who  was  at  Braemar  at  the  time,  had  heard  of 
the  projected  expedition  and  had  expressed  himself  rather 
doubtfully  as  to  its  success.  He  had  started  to  follow  them 
on  the  pony,  but  had  given  up  the  chase  and,  leaving 
the  creature  to  its  fate,  had  descended  on  foot.  There 
was  a  good  deal  of  talk  about  this  escapade,  for  they  had 
disturbed  a  great  herd  of  deer  at  the  summit,  and  the 
sportsmen,  whose  Sunday  occupation  was  to  watch  the 
deer,  had  their  spy-glasses  directed  that  way. 

The  following  letter  from  R.  A.  H.  Mitchell,  Assistant 
Master  at  Eton,  April  15,  1894,  contains  some  further 
reminiscences  of  Jowett's  manner  of  spending  the  vaca- 
tions in  these  years:  — 

'Nearly  thirty  years  have  now  passed  since  I  journeyed  to 
Yorkshire  to  join  the  Master  at  a  little  country  inn  in  the 
village  of  Askrigg,  some  twelve  miles'  drive  from  the  station 
at  Leyburn.  I  found  there,  besides  the  Master  himself,  the 
present  Lord  Lansdowne,  who  was  about  my  own  standing, 
Lord  Camperdown,  who  had  I  think  taken  his  degree,  and 
Purves,  who  was,  I  believe,  helping  the  Master  with  his 
work.  .  .  .  Our  method  of  living  did  not  altogether  commend 
itself  to  the  hungry  undergraduate,  for  we  had  only  two 
regular  meals  in  the  day,  breakfast  nominally  at  nine,  dinner  at 
four.  I  don't  think  the  Master  ever  supplemented  these  meals, 
though  we  did,  as  you  will  not  be  slow  to  understand.  The 
Master  never  thought  anything  about  his  food,  and  was 
content  with  the  simplest  diet.  At  that  time  his  whole 
thought  seemed  to  be  engrossed  in  his  Plato,  and  he  was 
not  so  ready  to  talk  as  he  was  in  his  later  years.  He  worked 
entirely  in  his  own  room.  I  have  never  seen  him  at  work, 
but  he  used  to  begin  immediately  after  breakfast  and  work 
on  till  dinner  at  four  o'clock.  He  then  went  for  a  walk, 
and  on  coming  in  retired  again  and  worked,  I  believe,  till 


i86c_i865]        With  Pupils  in   Vacation  337 

about  twelve  o'clock.  He  was  not  an  early  riser,  seldom 
appearing  before  ten,  but  he  would  not  allow  breakfast  to 
be  ordered  later  than  nine — not  altogether  a  comfortable 
arrangement.  When  we  subsequently  moved  off  together  to 
Pitlochry  he  proposed  that  any  one  who  was  five  minutes 
late  for  breakfast  should  be  fined  the  sum  of  one  shilling. 
The  first  morning  he  appeared  quite  punctually,  the  second  he 
was  a  little  late,  the  next  he  said  that,  as  he  was  late, 
he  thought  he  would  take  his  shilling's  worth.  After  that,  he 
found  that  ten  o'clock  suited  him  better  than  nine.  However, 
at  the  end  of  the  time  he  insisted  on  paying  a  shilling  a  day 
to  the  common  expenses. 

'His  example  of  hard  work  and  simplicity  was  of  great 
value  to  us,  and  made  hard  work  all  the  easier  at  a  time 
when  it  was  very  essential  for  me  to  be  kept  to  my  books. 
He  did  not  profess  or  attempt  to  coach  us  regularly,  but 
he  was  anxious  that  we  should  ask  him  questions,  and  he 
took  great  trouble  in  explaining  difficulties  and  making  his 
answers  clear.  Knowing  that  he  was  working  so  hard  himself, 
I  think  we  were  reluctant  to  burden  him  with  too  many 
questions,  ever  ready  though  he  was  to  help  us.  What 
I  found  most  valuable  was  his  sympathy  and  encouragement ; 
he  led  one  to  suppose  that  one  could  do  well,  provided  there 
was  hard  work,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  many  in 
life  "possunt  quia posse  videntur."  His  encouragement  caused 
many  to  persevere.  I  do  not  think  that  we  found  it  very 
easy  to  converse  with  him :  his  interests  and  thoughts  were 
veiy  far  removed  from  those  of  the  ordinary  undergraduate, 
or  the  small-talk  of  life ;  but  he  had  a  quiet  sympathy  for 
all  that  with  one's  pursuits,  with  a  word  of  warning  against 
spending  too  much  time  upon  them. 

'I  was  afterwards  with  him  at  Pitlochry,  and  in  the  following 
year  (1866)  at  St.  Andrews,  where  we  were  both  the  guests 
of  Professor  Lewis  Campbell  \  .  .  .' 

1  Mr.  Mitchell  adds.  '  Jowett's  against  Christ  Church.  On  that 
interests  did  not  lie,  as  mine  did,  occasion,  the  only  one  within  my 
in  cricket.  But  I  remember  he  knowledge,  he  indulged  in  the 
once  said  that  he  was  coming  to  evil  habit  of  betting,  for  he 
see  me  play  in  a  College  match  wagered  one  shilling,  I  think,  with 

VOL.    I.  Z 


338  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

In  1863  he  attended  the  meeting  of  the  British 
Association  at  Newcastle,  where  he  was  the  guest  of 
Sir  "W.  and  Lady  Armstrong. 

The  range  of  his  friendships  was  still  widening. 
Clifton  now  becomes  an  important  centre.  His  widowed 
cousin,  Mrs.  Irwin,  came  thither  to  reside  with  her 
children  in  Canynge  Square.  Jowett  continued  his 
visits  to  Dr.  Symonds  and  his  son  and  daughter,  at 
Hill  House.  They  persuaded  him,  somewhat  against 
the  grain,  to  be  photographed,  October  7,  1861 l.  He 
also  accepted  an  invitation  to  the  Deanery  of  Bristol 
in  1860. 

Before  doing  so,  however,  he  thought  it  necessary 
to  show  his  colours,  and  presented  a  copy  of  his  Essay  to 
the  Dean.  It  was  kindly  received,  as  appears  from 
a  letter  of  July  29,  1860 : — 

(To  Dean  Elliot.)  '  I  am  glad  you  do  not  wholly  disapprove 
of  my  Essay.  I  hardly  expect  any  one  engaged  in  practical 
work  to  approve  of  it.  But  I  hope  liberal-minded  persons 
may  indirectly  find  some  help  and  service  from  it,  though 
they  may  disagree.' 

The  Dean  was  liberal-minded,  and  willing  to  reason 
temperately  with  the  younger  clergyman  on  the  limits 
of  free  discussion  within  the  borders  of  the  Church. 
Dean  Elliot's  position,  as  Prolocutor  of  the  Lower  House 
of  Convocation,  might  have  been  of  great  importance 
at  this  crisis ;  but  he  was  compelled  to  travel  for  the 
health  of  one  of  his  daughters,  and  on  his  return 
circumstances  had  occurred  which  induced  him  to  resign. 

the    late     Principal    of    B.N.C.      he  did  not  lose  his  money.' 

(Dr.   Cradock)  that  I   got  forty.          1  Life  of  J.  A.  Symonds,  vol.  i. 

A  rash  bet,  but  I  am  glad  to  say      pp.  184-189. 


186^1865]   Cortachy,  Lea  Hurst,  Farringford     339 

Jowett,  with  characteristic  tenacity,  endeavoured  to 
dissuade  him  from  this  step ;  and  not  less  characteristic- 
ally acquiesced  in  it  when  taken,  and  congratulated  his 
friend  on  his  freedom.  He  still  ventured,  however,  to 
remonstrate  with  him  on  his  entire  withdrawal  from 
the  proceedings  of  the  Lower  House : — '  I  am  sorry  to 
see  that  you  no  longer  lend  the  weight  of  your  presence 
to  that  disorderly  assembly  over  which  you  used  to 
preside.' 

In  1 86 1  he  paid  his  first  visit  to  Lord  and  Lady 
Stanley  at  Alderley.  The  friendship  which  was  thus 
cemented  with  that  family  continued  through  his  after 
life,  and  led  in  particular  to  his  acquaintance  with  Lord 
and  Lady  Airlie,  which  he  improved  with  annual  visits 
to  their  seat  of  Cortachy,  in  Forfarshire.  In  1862  he 
began  his  frequent  visits  to  Mr.  Nightingale,  of  Embley, 
Hants,  and  Lea  Hurst  in  Derbyshire,  and  also  to  the 
Earl  of  Camperdown. 

An  annual  visit  to  the  Tennysons  at  Freshwater 
about  Christmas-time  became  a  matter  of  course,  and 
besides  the  Christmas  visit  he  often  took  a  lodging  near 
them,  at  Woodland  Cottage,  or  elsewhere.  He  writes  to 
Mrs.  Tennyson  (December,  1862):  'I  sometimes  think 
that  merely  being  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Alfred  keeps 
me  up  to  a  higher  standard  of  what  ought  to  be  in 
writing  and  thinking.' 

In  the  autumn  of  1862  the  death  of  Archbishop 
Sumner  left  the  See  of  Canterbury  vacant,  and  in  the 
changes  that  were  sure  to  follow,  it  seemed  likely  that 
a  Bishopric  of  some  kind  might  be  offered  to  Stanley. 
Jowett  urged  him  to  accept  one  if  offered,  whether 
small  or  great.  'In  some  respects  a  small  one  is  better 
than  a  great  one,  because  allowing  more  leisure  and 
having  less  routine.'  Not  that  he  could  desire  his  friend 

z  2 


340  Life  of  Benjamin  Joivett         [CHAP,  xi 

to  be  Archbishop  of  Dublin  :  c  an  Irish  Bishop  or  Arch- 
bishop I  could  not  be,  as  I  should  feel  always  judico  me 
cremari  V — By-and-by  it  appeared  likely  that  Tait  might 
be  called  to  Lambeth.  On  this  Jowett  wrote  still  more 
urgently,  giving  reasons  why  Stanley  should  not  refuse 
London  if  offered.  The  situation  changed  again  when 
Longley  was  translated  to  Canterbury  and  Tait  was 
offered  the  Archbishopric  of  York.  While  Tait  hesitated 
Jowett  wrote  once  more  to  Stanley,  repeating  his  advice. 
He  was  equally  decided  in  dissuading  him  from  accepting 
a  Deanery.  Whilst  Stanley  was  at  Canterbury,  the 
Deanery  of  Westminster  had  seemed  to  Jowett  a  desirable 
position  for  his  friend ;  but  now,  in  the  midst  of  the 
great  battle  for  liberty  at  Oxford,  he  would  not  have  him 
leave  it  for  any  Deanery  ;  and  when  Stanley,  on  returning 
from  his  Italian  tour  with  his  sister  Mary  and  Canon 
Hugh  Pearson,  in  October,  1863,  announced  at  once  his  en- 
gagement to  be  married  and  his  acceptance  of  the  Deanery 
of  Westminster,  Jowett,  while  rejoicing  in  the  former 
announcement,  regarded  the  latter  as  a  disastrous  step. 
To  him  personally  the  loss  of  Stanley's  help  at  Oxford 
was  in  any  case  a  severe  blow,  and  the  new  position 
did  not  seem  to  offer  any  compensating  advantage 
to  the  cause  of  liberal  thought.  That  he  did  not 
immediately  recover  from  the  change  appears  from  his 
writing  in  a  familiar  letter  some  years  afterwards, '  I  have 
not  yet  quite  forgiven  Anglicanus  for  deserting  me  ' ;  but 
when  he  saw  the  step  to  be  irrevocable  he  resolutely 
made  the  best  of  it ;  and,  besides  the  opportunity  of 
preaching  at  Westminster  which  came  in  1866  and  the 

1  When  the  Archbishopric   of  it   would   cross  him.'     Cf.   Dean 

Dublin  was  vacant  and  Stanley  Stanley  s  Life,  vol.  ii.  pp.  97-99, 

was  talked  of  for  the  place  Jowett  131,  132. 
said,  '  I  hope  he  will  not  take  it : 


1860-1865]       Professorships  in  Scotland  341 

following  years,  Jowett  gained  from  Stanley's  new  position 
an  additional  foothold  in  London  society,  where  the 
Deanery,  graced  with  Lady  Augusta's  presence,  became 
a  rallying-point  for  all  that  was  most  illustrious  both 
in  the  Church  and  in  the  world.  It  is  evident,  however, 
from  the  letters  above  referred  to,  that  in  dissuading 
Stanley  from  accepting  "Westminster  he  had  no  thought 
of  interfering  with  his  friend's  preferment ;  the  truth 
was  that  he  had  larger  views  for  him. 

In  the  autumn  of  1863  the  Sellars  went  to  Edinburgh, 
where  Lancaster  was  now  married,  and  had  young 
children1.  Jowett  had  god-children  in  both  houses, 
and  made  friendships  with  all  the  young  ones,  becoming 
most  intimate  with  those  that  were  the  liveliest,  and 
had  least  of  what  was  called  intellectual  promise.  His 
own  shyness  made  him  relish  talkativeness  in  others. 
Several  of  his  old  Scottish  pupils  were  pushing  their 
fortunes  in  their  own  country.  I  had  succeeded  Sellar 
at  St.  Andrews  (1863),  where  our  home  became  one  of 
his  favoured  resorts ;  Nichol,  after  being  rejected  for  the 
Logic  Chair  at  St.  Andrews,  had  been  appointed  to  the 
new  Chair  of  English  Literature  at  Glasgow  (1861). 
Another  contest  in  which  he  took  great  interest  was  that 
of  T.  H.  Green  for  the  Chair  of  Moral  Philosophy  at 
St.  Andrews,  vacated  by  Ferrier's  death  in  1864.  The 
Rev.  Robert  Flint,  of  Kilconquhar,  was  the  rival  candi- 
date. The  University  Court,  of  whom  Professor 
J.  C.  Shairp  was  one,  preferred  the  Scotch  minister  to 
the  young  Oxonian,  whose  youth  and,  it  must  be  said 
also,  what  was  then  regarded  as  the  obscurity  of  his  Essay 
on  Aristotle,  told  against  him. 

Burdened  as  he  was,  there  was  no  trouble  which  Jowett 

1  See  Jowett's  Preface  to  H.  H.  Lancaster's  posthumous  volume  of 
Essays  and  Reviews. 


342  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

would  not  take  for  a  friend,  travelling  any  distance  to 
a  marriage  or  a  christening,  at  either  of  which  ceremonies 
he  was  often  the  officiating  minister.  He  went  to 
Berlin  in  1864,  for  example,  merely  to  christen  Morier's 
child.  He  sought  to  reconcile  his  work  with  travelling, 
by  reading  and  writing  a  great  deal  in  railway  trains. 
I  have  seen  a  pencil  analysis  of  Plato's  Laws,  which 
bore  evident  marks  of  having  been  composed  in  a  shaky 
carriage. 

Jowett  never  sought  for  Court  favour,  and  he  sometimes 
felt  that  Stanley's  real  position  had  been  rather  weak- 
ened by  it.  But  he  was  genuinely  pleased  by  two 
instances  of  sympathy  in  high  places  which  reached  him 
in  1863. 

The  Tennysons  had  been  at  Osborne,  and  Mrs. 
Tennyson  had  written  a  letter  which  Jowett  reported  to 
his  mother.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tennyson  had  both  spoken 
of  Jowett  to  the  Queen,  who  said  that  'Oxford  had 
used  him  shamefully,'  on  which  Tennyson  burst  forth 
again  with,  *I  am  so  glad  your  Majesty  appreciates 
Mr.  Jowett.' 

To  Mrs.  Tennyson  Jowett  wrote  in  reply : — 

'  I  am  very  glad  you  went  to  see  the  Queen.  It  is  a  great 
recollection  for  the  children  to  have  ;  and  good  for  her  to  see 
people  who  come  from  the  fresh  air  of  the  outer  world.  .  .  . 
Best  love  and  grateful  thanks  to  Alfred.' 

Soon  afterwards  the  Crown  Princess  of  Prussia  went 
incognita  to  Oxford  on  purpose  to  have  an  interview  with 
him.  This  also  is  recorded  in  a  letter  to  his  mother: 
'  I  never  saw  a  person  who  pleased  me  better.  She  sat 
and  talked  about  an  hour  about  Philosophy  and  matters 
of  that  sort.  I  thought  her  quite  a  genius.  .  .  .  This 
is  partly  due  to  Dr.  Stanley,  partly  to  my  old  friend 
Morier,  who  is  a  friend  of  hers.' 


343 

LETTERS,  1860^1865. 

To  DEAN  ELLIOT. 

[OXFORD,]  October  17,  1860. 

I  venture  to  send  you  a  short  paper  that  I  have  written 
upon  the  revision  of  the  Liturgy.  I  have  no  intention  of 
publishing  it,  but  think  I  would  like  to  inflict  upon  you, 
and  one  or  two  other  persons  who  are  acquainted  with  the 
subject,  the  trouble  of  reading  it.  Would  you  kindly  return 
the  paper  to  me  when  you  have  looked  at  it,  as  I  have 
no  copy ;  though  if  you  care  to  keep  it,  I  could  easily  get 
one  made  and  send  it  you  ? 

You  will  perhaps  consider  that  I  am  making  for  you,  a 
prqpos  of  nothing,  a  very  laborious  amusement. 

I  hear  that  you  are  going  to  leave  England  for  an  indefinite 
time.  I  am  very  sorry  indeed  that  you  should  be  obliged 
to  take  such  a  step,  even  as  a  measure  of  precaution.  The 
Cradocks  tell  me  that  they  have  begged  you  to  come  here 
before  your  departure  for  a  day  or  two.  Another  person  will 
be  glad  to  welcome  you  also. 

.  .  .  You  will  smile  at  my  Act  of  Parliament  to  revise 
the  Liturgy.  I  merely  wanted  to  show,  from  beginning  to 
end,  by  what  simple  means  the  suggestion  might  be  effected. 

To  Miss  ELLIOT. 

January  22,  1861. 

I  read  yesterday  with  great  pleasure  a  pamphlet  on  Destitute 
Incurables l  (it  appears  to  be  written  by  some  one  who  bears 
your  name).  I  thought  it  extremely  well  done,  very  touching 
and  simple,  and  really  practical  and  businesslike.  When  you 
have  any  scheme  of  Philanthropy  on  hand  (like  Miss  Cobbe, 
I  hate  Philanthropists),  it  is  a  very  good  rhetorical  artifice 
to  pretend  to  be  hard-hearted.  If  you  are  a  political  economist, 

1  Destitute  Incurables  in  Work-  Science  Meeting  in  Glasgow, 
houses:  a  paper  by  Miss  Elliot  September,  1860.  Autobiography 
and  Miss  Cobbe,  read  at  the  Social  of  F.  P.  Cobbe,  vol.  i.  pp.  316,  317. 


344  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

you  should  appear  before  the  world  as  a  philanthropist ;  if 
you  are  a  philanthropist,  make  people  believe  that  you  are 
a  political  economist ;  always  appear  to  be  what  you  are  . 
not,  and  use  words  to  conceal  your  thoughts.  What  shocking 
advice !  If  you  think  so,  it  can  be  reversed ;  but  is  it  not 
partly  true  notwithstanding  ? 

I,  who  am  really,  and  not  in  pretence  only,  very  hard- 
hearted, read  the  pamphlet  about  the  poor  Incurables,  not 
without  some  excitement  of  feeling.  It  was  a  very  happy 
and  Christian  thought  of  the  person  who  first  took  up  their 
cause.  Perhaps  they  will  be  met  by  a  company  of  incurables 
at  the  gate  of  the  celestial  city  coming  to  welcome  them. 
For  myself,  I  do  little  or  nothing  for  the  poor,  but  I  have 
always  a  very  strong  feeling  that  they  are  not  as  they  ought 
to  be  in  the  richest  country  that  the  world  has  ever  known. 
In  theory  I  have  a  great  love  for  them,  and  some  day,  if 
I  live,  hope  I  may  be  able  to  write  something  about  them. 

To  DEAN  ELLIOT,  AT  CANNES. 

BALLIOL  COLLEGE,  OXFORD, 

_  February  8,  1861. 

DEAR  MR.  DEAN, 

It  is  a  formidable  thing  to  commence  a  correspondence 
uninvited  (especially  with  a  dignitary  of  the  Church)  when 
you  are  secretly  conscious  that  you  have  nothing  worth 
telling  to  say.  Nevertheless  I  venture  to  trouble  you  with 
a  few  lines,  lest  I  should  wholly  fall  out  of  acquaintance. 

I  was  glad  to  hear  that  you  have  found  the  experiment 
of  going  abroad  so  completely  successful.  The  columns  of 
the  Times  will  show  you  that  this  winter  has  been  very 
ungentle  to  invalids.  Surely  the  desire  of  life  must  be  very 
slight,  or  the  spirit  of  indolence  strong,  to  make  weak  chests 
and  throats  stay  out  such  a  season  in  England. 

As  I  really  feel  a  difficulty  in  'breaking  the  ice/  I  shall 
hope  you  will  receive  all  I  say — wise,  foolish,  amusing  or 
otherwise — with  the  same  kindness  you  showed  me  at  the 
Deanery  last  summer.  Now  I  shall  imagine  myself  at  home 
and  begin  to  talk.  I  should  be  glad  if  you  would  repent 


Letters,  1860-1865  345 

of  the  '  Nolo  Episcopari ' ;  but  as  you  refuse,  I  can  only 
wish  you  the  best  of  Deaneries  and  many  peaceful  days  in 
it.  Do  you  know  that  Convocation,  at  the  instigation  of 
Dr.  Jelf,  are  going  to  consider  and  perhaps  censure  the  book 
called  Essays  and  Revietcs"?  How  injurious  to  Convocation, 
to  what  is  termed  orthodoxy,  to  every  one  except  the  writers 
of  the  book  and  their  friends !  I  am  glad  you  are  not  likely 
to  be  there.  I  should  not  wish  to  draw  upon  friends  (if  I  may 
call  you  so)  to  drag  us  out  of  the  ditch.  At  present  the 
book  is  a  sort  of  bugbear  among  the  Bishops  and  Clergy, 
showing,  I  venture  to  think,  that  some  inquiries  of  the  sort 
were  needed,  if  the  evidences  of  religion  are  to  have  anything 
but  a  conventional  value.  In  a  few  years  there  will  be  no 
religion  in  Oxford  among  intellectual  young  men,  unless 
religion  is  shown  to  be  consistent  with  criticism. 

I  wish  the  Bishops  were  alive  to  the  great  and  increasing 
evil  of  the  want  of  ability  among  young  clergymen.  The 
two  great  literary  professions  of  the  Bar  and  the  Church 
seem  to  be  fast  degenerating.  In  the  Church  I  am  convinced 
that  one  of  the  principal — I  think  the  greatest — cause  is 
'Subscription.'  To-day  I  was  walking  with  a  grandson  of 
the  Bishop  of  Exeter,  who  was  expressing  his  strong  desire 
to  go  into  Orders  and  his  inability  to  do  so. 

The  political  horizon  seems  unusually  dark,  by  which 
I  don't  mean  that  I  mj^elf  have  no  chance  of  obtaining 
preferment,  or  that  the  country  is  going  to  ruin,  but  that 
'  our  friends '  the  Whigs  appear  to  me  unlikely  to  retain 
their  places  and  to  have  by  no  means  a  good  store  of  political 
capital  with  which  to  commence  opposition.  I  wonder  they 
have  not  felt  that  Eeform  was  needed,  not  only  for  the 
good  of  the  country,  but  to  enable  them  to  retain  office ; 
without  it  the  Conservatives  gain  on  them  every  year,  and 
would  have  been  in  office  long  ago  if  they  had  been  trusted 
in  their  foreign  policy.  I  suppose  that  Lord  Palmerston 
has  cast  his  spell  over  the  party,  and  is  satisfied  if  the  present 
strange  combination  last  his  time. 

I  hope  you  will  go  to  Rome  and  see  the  last  of  the  Pope. 
What  is  to  be  the  future  of  the  Church  of  Rome  ?  I  suppose 
we  may  reckon  that  it  will  not  die  for  centuries,  but  go 


346  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

on  in  a  perpetual  state  of  relaxation  and  nationalization.  The 
Ultramontane  element  however,  which  is  said  to  be  so  strong 
among  the  Clergy  (the  less  the  power,  the  greater  the  assump- 
tion), makes  a  difficulty :  it  will  neither  learn  nor  unlearn 
anything.  I  expect  L.  Napoleon  and  Cavour  will  give  it 
a  knock  on  the  head  when  the  time  comes.  Marrying  the 
Clergy  in  the  present  state  of  Catholic  feeling  is  impossible, 
perhaps ;  but  educating  them  in  the  light  of  day  and  not 
in  Catholic  Seminaries  is  feasible ;  and  something  of  this 
kind  we  shall  perhaps  see  attempted.  Do  you  ever  see  the 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  ?  You  will  be  interested  with  an  article 
of  E.  Kenan's  on  the  subject.  .  .  . 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

[February,  1861,]  Friday. 

I  have  just  written  out  my  letter ]  in  fair  calligraphic  hand 
(beautiful  writing,  and  the  term  which  you  added  about  the 
Formularies  of  the  Church  of  England  quite  admirable).  But 
I  have  determined  not  to  send  it.  My  reasons  are.:— 

1.  The  enclosed  letter  from  Wilson 2,  which  is  very  amusing 
(the  description  of  the  old  squire  is  charming).     I  should  do 
more  harm  by  seeming  to   detach  myself  from  them,  with 
whom  I  don't  (nevertheless)  wholly  agree,  than  any  advantage 
I  should  gain,  if  the  letter  were  successful,  from  a  sharp  hit 
at  the  Bishop  of  London. 

2.  I  should  irritate  the  Bishop  of  London,  who  perhaps  has 
more  reason  for  his  conduct  than  we  know  (though  I  cannot 
conceive  of  what  kind) :   at  any  rate  he  would  have  to  cast 
about  in  his  mind  for   a  defence,    which  would   end   in   an 
attack  on  me  or  some  one. 

3.  The  contest  will  be   a  long   one ;   I  am   afraid   in  my 
case  as  long  as  life  ;   and  there  will  be  other   opportunities 
of  showing  that  I  am   not  cowed  by  this  apparition  of  the 
twenty-five  Bishops  ;  in  the  meantime  it  is  of  great  importance 
to  speak  evil  of  no  one  and  to  irritate  no  one. 

Whether  this  plan  is  successful  or  not,  depends  partly  on 

'  To   the  Bishop  of  London,  A.  C.  Tait.    See  p.  297. 
2  The  Rev.  H.  B.  Wilson. 


Letters,  1860-1865  347 

the  manner  in  which  it  is  carried  out,  and  this  on  health 
and  other  matters  over  which  I  have  no  control.  When 
I  look  at  the  matter  seriously  and  not  comically,  as  I  do 
sometimes  with  you  and  Mrs.  Vaughan — who  is  positively 
deserting  me  in  my  misfortunes,  no  doubt  for  good  and  wise 
reasons,  (when  I  am  burnt  in  the  Churchyard  at  Doncaster, 
the  Vicar l  preaching  a  sermon  on  the  occasion,  I  expect  her 
to  give  me  breakfast) — I  believe  the  motto  should  be,  'in 
quietness  and  confidence  shall  be  your  strength.'  Therefore 
I  shall  cease  to  trouble  you  and  Mrs.  Stanley 2  any  more  on 
the  subject. 

To  F.  T.  PALGBAVE. 

March  22,  1861. 

It  is  almost  too  late  to  answer  your  first  note  about  the 
joint  authorship  of  the  Essays,  except  to  say  that  Grant's 
statement  goes  beyond  the  truth,  which  is,  that  the  authors 
knew  one  another  slightly,  for  the  most  part,  and  took  the 
subjects  which  suited  them,  without  concert  and  without 
seeing  one  another's  writing,  except  in  the  case  of  Wilson, 
who  edited  and  superintended,  but  without,  as  far  as  I  was 
concerned,  making  any  alteration. 

I  do  not  know  anything  about  the  address  to  Temple, 
unless  it  be  one  set  on  foot  by  Spottiswoode.  My  own 
impression  is  that  -addresses  are  no  good,  unless  they  are 
intended  to  avert  some  libel  or  danger  of  ejectment,  which 
in  Temple's  case  is  not  likely. 

I  hope  that  you  are  not  taking  life  too  sadly.  '  Be  cheerful, 
sir3.' 

To  DEAN  ELLIOT,  AT  GENOA. 

BALLIOL  COLLEGE,  OXFORD, 
April  i,  1861. 

You  kindly  ask  whether  there  is  anything  which  you  can 
do.  I  believe  not  (I  mean  as  far  as  I  am  concerned).  The 
worse  the  behaviour  of  Convocation,  the  better  for  those 

1  Dr.  C.  J.  Vaughan,  now  Dean          2  Dr.  Stanley's  mother, 
of  Llandaff.  3  Shakespeare,  Tempest,  iv.  i. 


348  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

who  are  attacked  by  it,  though  not,  perhaps,  the  better  for 
the  Church  of  England.  I  made  up  my  mind  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  clamour  that  the  best  course  was  also 
the  easiest — to  do  nothing.  With  my  College  and  University 
work  I  have  not  had  time  hitherto  to  write  answers,  hardly 
to  write  letters,  if  I  had  had  the  inclination. 

I  am  sorry  that  the  Clergy  are  so  determinedly  set  against 
all  the  intellectual  tendencies  of  the  age.  They  are  trying 
to  pledge  the  Church  of  England  to  the  same  course  in  which 
the  Church  of  Eome  has  already  failed.  The  real  facts  and 
truths  of  Christianity  are  quite  a  sufficient  basis  for  a  national 
Church,  but  they  want  to  maintain  a  conventional  Christianity 
into  which  no  one  is  to  inquire,  which  is  always  being  patched 
and  plastered  with  evidences  and  apologies.  I  wish  I  could 
persuade  you  that  it  was  right  to  alter  the  Church  of  England 
from  within,  for  I  think  that  it  will  never  be  altered  from 
without,  unless  it  is  destroyed. 

I  had  not  forgotten  your  words  to  me  at  Bristol  about 
freethinkers  entering  the  ministry.  But  unless  you  admit 
some  freedom  of  thought,  men  of  ability  will  be  absolutely 
excluded,  and  the  Church  of  England  will  become  more  and 
more  the  instrument  of  bigotry  and  intolerance.  Moreover 
I  cannot  see  that  freethinkers  about  Scripture,  &c.,  who  were 
not  contemplated  by  the  Articles,  are  more  nearly  touched 
by  them  than  the  High  Churchmen  who  were,  or  than  the 
Evangelicals  are  by  the  Baptismal  Service.  Though  I  dislike 
'Subscription,'  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  if  we  are  all  dis- 
honest together  that  proves  us  to  be  all  honest  together  \ 

Do  you  think  of  writing  anything  on  the  present  position 
of  the  Church  of  England — 'A  letter  to  Convocation  from 
the  Prolocutor  of  the  Lower  House '  ?  There  will  hardly  occur 
such  an  opportunity  again  of  saying  useful  truths  with  equal 
effect.  And  yet,  perhaps,  by  the  time  the  letter  was  ready 
the  tempest  may  have  lulled  ;  and  it  seems  a  kind  of  profana- 

1  An    application    of    W.     G.  scribing  to  them  (the  Articles)  we 

Ward's   saying   as    recorded    by  were  not  all  dishonest  together, 

Jowett  in  W.  G.   Ward  and  the  but  all  honest  together.'    Cf.  the 

Oxford  Movement,  p.  438,  '  At  one  letter  to  B.  C.  Brodie  of  February, 

time  he  used  to  say  that  in  sub-  1845  (p.  94). 


Letters,  1860-1865  349 

tion  to  contaminate  the  lakes  and  cities  of  the  North  of 
Italy  with  controversy.  I  hope  you  will  write,  however, 
some  day. 

To  Miss  ELLIOT. 

BALLIOL  COLLEGE,  OXFORD, 
April  i,  1861. 

Let  me  only  thank  you  for  your  great  kindness  and  con- 
sideration in  troubling  yourself  about  me  in  this  storm.  Such 
letters  as  yours  and  the  Dean's  outweigh  many  times  the 
attacks  of  the  Guardian  and  Record, 

The  truth  is  we  have  nothing  to  complain  of  and  are  in 
no  danger.  It  is  obvious  that  any  one  who  runs  against  the 
religious  prejudices  of  the  time  must  expect  to  be  a  mark 
for  attacks.  There  seems  to  me  to  be  very  little  malignity, 
except  perhaps  in  the  subtle  genius  of  the  Saturday  Review, 
who  no  doubt  supposes  himself  (whoever  he  is)  to  be  writing 
in  the  most  honourable  and  conscientious  spirit.  I  think 
it  should  be  understood  that  in  controversy,  as  in  love,  every- 
thing is  fair.  I  think  people  may  be  allowed  to  tell  lies, 
for  they  really  can't  help  it. 

To  DEAN  ELLIOT,  AT  FLORENCE. 

FRESHWATER,  April  16,  1861. 

...  I  think  matters  are  calming  down.  I  am  very  glad 
that  you  were  not  in  Convocation,  as  it  would  have  been 
impossible  to  have  stemmed  the  first  strength  of  the  torrent, 
and  it  would  probably  have  been  a  waste  of  power  to  have 
attempted  it. 

Looking  at  the  subject  (not  with  reference  to  our  personal 
interests  or  feelings,  but)  with  reference  to  the  questions 
at  stake  and  the  interest  of  the  Church  in  the  long  run, 
which  cannot  really  be  separated  from  the  interests  of  truth, 
I  think  the  course  of  events  has  been  favourable.  Many 
persons  have  admitted  into  their  minds  inquiries  which  they 
would  have  resisted  but  for  the  manner  in  which  the  subject 
has  been  forced  upon  them  by  the  Bishops.  It  is  the  be- 
ginning of  a  long  controversy  which  has  now  for  the  first 


350  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

time  taken  hold  of  the  Church  of  England.  And  I  believe 
it  may  tend  not  merely  to  a  negative  and  critical  theology, 
but  to  the  making  of  religion  more  natural  and  effectual. 
The  false  position  of  educated  persons  with  reference  to 
their  practice  is  quite  as  striking  as  their  false  position  in 
speculation. 

This  will  probably  reach  you  at  Genoa  or  Florence,  or  an 
Italian  lake,  some  beautiful  spot  which  should  make  one 
forget  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  controversy  in  the  world. 

To  SIR  ALEXANDER  GRANT,  IN  INDIA. 

FRESHWATER,  April  27,  1861. 

Perhaps  I  shall  be  as  well  employed  in  writing  to  an 
absent  friend  this  Sunday  morning  as  in  going  to  hear 
Mr.  Isaacson  preach,  who  calls  me  Judas  Iscariot.  Let  me 
thank  you,  once  more,  for  the  great  pains  you  took  about 
my  brother's *  affairs,  which  are  now  quite  settled,  and  assure 
you  what  great  pleasure  your  last  letter  gave  me  and  others 
who  read  it. 

Lady  Grant2  is  here,  quite  well  and  satisfied,  as  she  tells 
me,  that  you  should  be  useful  in  a  distant  land.  We  all  look 
forward,  however,  to  your  coming  home  to  a  changed  world 
and  to  a  changed  Oxford  perhaps,  (for  it  really  is  changing 
more  rapidly  than  could  have  been  expected,)  but  not  to 
changed  friends. 

I  am  living  here  at  a  lodging  about  half  a  mile  from 
Tennyson's,  who  talks  of  you  with  great  regard  and  affection. 
The  other  evening,  going  upstairs  we  stopped  to  look  at 
Maurice  and  you,  as  you  hang  beside  one  another.  Tennyson 
said,  'That  man  (Maurice)  I  never  allow  anything  to  be 
said  against,  and  that  Mannie  (Grant)  there  is  nothing  to 
be  said  against.'  Mrs.  Tennyson  wants  you  to  be  governor, 
not  of  the  island  of  Barataria,  but  of  Madras  or  Bombay. 
And  I  wish  for  you  that  you  should  leave  behind  you  in 
India  a  sort  of  reputation  like  Bishop  Heber's  for  kindness 
and  friendship  to  the  natives. 

1  Alfred  Jowett :  see  p.  253. 

2  The  Dowager  Lady  Grant,  Sir  A.  Grant's  mother. 


Letters,  1860-1865  351 

I  believe  that  you  are  in  a  far  better  position  for  doing 
them  good  than  you  would  be  as  a  missionary  or  Bishop. 
Is  not  the  late  change  in  the  admission  to  writerships  favour- 
able to  education?  Men  who  owe  their  admission  to  the 
service  to  education  will  surely  believe  more  in  its  value 
than  the  old  civil  servants.  I  hope  you  will  not  depend 
only  on  the  College1,  but  write  and  try  to  get  political  con- 
nexions. We  students  and  pedagogues  lose  influence  often 
by  not  doing  our  part  sufficiently  in  the  world  and  in  society. 

There  has  been  a  great  tumult  about  Essays  and  Reviews, 
which  is  now  dwindling  to  a  calm.  The  folly  of  the  Bishops 
has  led  to  the  book  selling  about  20,000  copies.  I  have  been 
a  great  deal  more  pleased  by  the  kindness  and  support  which 
the  book  has  called  forth  than  hurt  by  the  attacks  of  enemies, 
which,  like  the  attacks  of  mosquitoes,  seem  to  produce  little 
impression  after  the  first  day  or  two. 

At  present  I  am  busy  with  Plato,  which  is  my  reason  for 
staying  away  from  Oxford,  and  Lave  hope  of  finishing  by  the 
end  of  the  year. 

Please  to  reconsider  what  you  say  about  the  Ethics2.  It 
must  be  out  of  print  and  may  be  set  aside  by  some  interloper. 
Would  you  like  me  to  do  anything  or  get  anything  done  in 
the  course  of  the  next  year  ? 

...  I  am  very  desirous  that  yoti  should  write  about  India, 
not  hastily,  but  when  you  have  had  time  to  collect  facts 
and  review  impressions.  Probably  no  one  at  present  in  India 
could  do  so  as  well,  and  it  would  at  once  give  you  a  position 
above  the  ordinary  civil  servants. 

So  you  have  got  a  son 3.  He  has  my  best  wishes.  Some 
day  you  will  send  him  over  to  Eton  or  Eugby,  and  perhaps 
to  Balliol,  if  I  am  living : — I  get  more  and  more  determined 
to  cast  in  my  lot  for  life  at  Oxford. 

Pray  let  me  hear  from  you  about  India.  I  am  always 
interested. 

1  Grant  was  now  Principal  of  3  The   child   died    in   infancy. 
Elphinstone  College,  Bombay.  In  writing  to  the  mother,  Jowett 

2  The  first  volume  of  Grant's  said,  '  One   can   say  of   infants, 
edition  of  the  Nicomachean  Ethics  more  truly  than  of  any  one  else, 
of  Aristotle  was  published  in  1857.  they  fall  asleep  in  Jesus.' 


352  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

To  Miss  ELLIOT. 

TORQUAY,  June  g,  1861. 

I  hope  you  will  enjoy  Switzerland.  Don't  relinquish  Venice 
(if  Kome  has  become  impossible),  nor  Verona,  which  is  almost 
equally  beautiful,  and  the  Lago  di  Garda.  Let  me  tell  you 
also  what  I  thought  the  most  beautiful  thing  in  the  Alps — the 
Val  d'Anzasca  ;  you  go  to  it  from  Vogogna,  and,  if  you  are 
very  brave,  might  contrive  to  get  over  the  Monte  Moro  to  Saas 
and  Zermatt.  I  see  you  don't  like  to  trust  yourself  with  an 
English  summer. 

The  Essays  and  Reviews  have  long  ceased  to  be  talked  of  in 
good  society.  They  are  permeating,  as  people  say,  the  lower 
strata :  '  Gents '  in  railways  talk  about  them  to  their  sweet- 
hearts :  God  help  them ! — The  last  I  heard  of  them  was  that 
they  had  been  condemned  by  a  Synod  of  Quakers  (who  have 
a  certain  affinity  with  the  Bishops),  which,  my  Quaker  in- 
formant adds,  has  greatly  stimulated  the  appetite  of  young 
Quakers.  Though  I  try  to  make  fun  of  them  to  you,  you 
must  not  suppose  that  I  regard  the  whole  affair  altogether 
as  a  joke. 

Lord  John  Kussell  is  said  to  have  produced  a  great  effect 
by  a  speech  on  Foreign  Politics  about  ten  days  ago.  There 
seems  to  be  a  general  feeling  that  he  has  entirely  succeeded 
as  Foreign  Minister.  No  one  has  gained  so  much  in  this 
session. 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

i  ROYAL  CRESCENT,  WHITBY,  [1861]. 

Will  you  kindly  read  the  enclosed  and  show  them  to 
Fremantle  if  you  have  an  opportunity  ?  This  '  is  a  man  whom 
we  ought  not  to  desert,  I  think.  Can  you  find  him  a  curacy 
under  some  Rector  or  Bishop  by  whom  he  will  not  be  molested  ? 
He  appears  to  me  to  be  just  the  man  for  a  Bethnal  Green 
church,  or  something  of  that  sort. 

I  received  this  morning  a  copy  of  the  articles  against 
Eowland  Williams.  They  appear  to  be  concocted  in  the  most 

1  The  Rev.  Charles  Voysey. 


Letters,  1860-1865  353 

monstrous  spirit.  .  .  .  The  Bishop  of  London,  and  still  more 
Thirlwall,  have  not  a  leg  to  stand  upon  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land if  the  articles  against  Eowland  Williams  are  affirmed. 
Pseudo-orthodox  as  the  Bishops  are,  I  believe  that  there  is  not 
one  of  them  who  might  not  be  dethroned  by  a  similar  process 
of  inferential  and  constructive  treason. 

To  Miss  ELLIOT. 

WHITBY,  August  4,  1861. 

On  my  way  here,  I  went  to  see  the  Arch-heretic  Dr.  Williams, 
who,  for  '  his  soul's  health '  (that  is  the  form),  has  been  put  into 
the  Ecclesiastical  Court  by  the  Bishop  of  Sarum.  Dr.  Williams 
is  a  learned  and  good  man,  and  a  gentleman — but  a  Welshman, 
which  (as  is  the  case  with  all  Welshmen)  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  bear  in  mind,  if  you  would  judge  them  fairly. 
The  articles  against  him  are  monstrous.  If  they  are  admitted, 
I  think  it  will  be  impossible  for  any  Clergyman  who  preaches 
or  writes  or  says  anything,  to  escape  the  charge  of  heresy. 
All  Bishops  (also  Deans)  have  certainly  been  guilty.  The  only 
possibility  of  avoiding  such  a  charge  will  be  to  read  the  homilies 
instead  of  composing  anything  of  your  own.  The  case  comes 
on  after  the  Long  Vacation :  I  do  not  think  it  will  succeed 
on  any  article,  especially  as  the  prosecution  of  it  is  against 
the  wish  of  Canterbury  and  London,  and  against  an  implied 
understanding  of  the  Bishops  when  they  signed  the  letter  to 
Mr.  Fremantle1. 

Three  acquaintances  whom  I  have  made  this  vacation 
deserve  to  be  noticed.  One  was  Mr.  Macleod  Campbell,  author 
of  the  book  on  the  Atonement,  a  more  than  ordinarily  good,  and 
truthful,  and  spiritual  man :  (there  are  a  small  class  of  such 
persons  who  lift  themselves  and  others  out  of  common  life). 
He  was  deposed  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  about  thirty  years 
ago,  Dr.  Chalmers,  who  partly  agreed  with  him,  refusing  to 
raise  a  finger  in  his  defence.  My  next  new  acquaintance  (I  am 
afraid  that  this  cannot  possibly  interest  you)  was  Mr.  A.  J.  Scott, 
of  Owens  College  (did  you  ever  hear  of  him  ?),  a  most  excellent 

1  The  Vicar  of  Islip,  to  whose  published  letter  the  denunciation  of 
the  twenty-five  Bishops  was  the  reply. 
VOL.  I.  A   a 


354  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

talker,  one  of  the  very  few  persons  who  satisfies  you  in  con- 
versation. He  is  also  a  deposed  minister,  and  what  the  poor 
call  a  very  fine  man,  of  handsome  presence  and  full  of  thoughts 
and  words.  My  third  acquaintance  was  Dr.  John  Brown, 
a  physician  at  Edinburgh,  best  known  to  the  world  as  the 
author  of  Bab  and  his  Friends,  and  also  of  a  most  admirable 
memoir  of  his  own  father.  He  is  certainly  a  writer  of  real 
genius  and  feeling,  and  a  most  excellent  man.  He  had 
a  charming  wife,  I  am  told  ;  but  his  life  has  been  utterly 
spoiled  and  darkened  by  her  going  hopelessly  out  of  her  mind. 
Do  you  agree  with  Mr.  Mill  in  the  last  number  of  Fraser,  that 
if  persons  manage  properly  they  can  be  sure  of  getting  con- 
siderable portions  of  happiness  out  of  life  ? 

Dr.  Williams's  cause  has  as  yet  made  no  progress.  He  has 
got  Mr.  Stephen  *,  brother  of  Miss  Stephen  at  Clifton,  for  one 
of  his  counsel.  A  law  court  is  better  for  justice  than  Convo- 
cation, but  a  law  court  easily  gets  inspired  in  these  questions 
by  public  opinion.  None  of  the  ordinary  rules  of  law  are 
applicable :  the  judge  does  what  he  likes  and  the  world  calls 
this  common  sense.  Still,  I  hope  that  a  Protestant  judge  will 
pause  before  he  determines  that  the  evidences,  prophecies, 
&c.,  are  a  fiction  (for  that  is  what  the  decision  would  involve) 
to  be  maintained  not  by  weapons  of  reason  and  argument,  but 
by  the  authority  of  the  Court. 

Do  you  ever  hear  anything  of  Mazzini?  He  seems  to  be 
more  abused  than  any  other  man  in  this  world.  I  think 
he  must  be  a  great  man,  though  a  visionary  and  perhaps 
dangerous.  The  present  state  of  Italy  is  greatly  due  to  him. 
His  defence  of  Eome  raised  the  Italian  character.  I  don't 
suppose  that  you  hear  the  truth  about  him  in  the  North  of 
Italy.  Some  friends  of  mine,  who  know  him,  assure  me 
that  he  has  the  greatest  fascination  of  manner  they  have 
ever  met  with. 

I  am  sorry  to  see  Mr.  resigning  his  living.  No 

doubt  one  ought  to  say,  '  God  bless  him,'  to  every  man  who 
makes  a  sacrifice  for  what  he  believes  to  be  the  truth.  But 

1  Sir  J.  Fitzjames  Stephen.  The  Miss  Stephen  referred  to  was 
really  his  cousin. 


Letters,  1860-1865  355 

if  men  drop  off  in  this  way,  they  will  at  best  only  get  into  the 
position  of  Nonjurors  or  Unitarians.  If  the  present  condition 
of  religion  in  England  is  ever  to  be  improved,  I  am  convinced 
it  must  be  through  the  Church  of  England.  .  .  . 

To  DEAN  ELLIOT,  AT  FLORENCE. 

BALLIOL  COLLEGE,  OXFORD, 

October  10,  1861. 

I  hear  that  you  are  thinking  of  giving  up  the  Prolocutorship 
on  the  ground  'that  Convocation  is  so  unjust.' 

Perhaps  your  mind  is  made  up.  But  indeed,  I  am  truly 
sorry  if  it  is,  and  hope  you  will  not  think  me  impertinent  for 
telling  you  the  reason  why  : — 

1.  It  seems  to  me  that  you  would  be  doing  what  all  High 
Churchmen  and  enemies  of  inquiry  most  desire.     They  would 
be  extremely  pleased  to  enthrone  Canon  Wordsworth  in  your 
place.     I  hope  that  you  will  not  give  them  this  pleasure. 

2.  I  think  it  is  an  error  (and  one  which  is  almost  sure  to 
cause  pain  in  the  retrospect)  to  retire  from  any  position  in 
which  you  have  attained  success  and  honour.     Never  resign, 
especially  in  the  Church,  where  such  a  magic  power  attends  the 
words  of  any  person  in  authority.     It  is  true  that  you  cannot 
say  as  much,  but  what  you  say  has  tenfold  weight  and  power. 
In  any  matter  affecting  Convocation  you  would  have  a  claim, 
as  Prolocutor,  to  be  listened  to  by  the  Ministry,  which  you 
would  not  have  as  a  mere  Dean.     Though,  as  Chairman,  you  do 
not  take  part  in  the  discussion,  there  are  doubtless  ways  in 
which  you  may  prevent  evil  and  do  good. 

3.  Let  me  suppose  that  you  resign  :    in  doing  so,  you  would 
either  hold  your  peace  or  publicly  give  reasons.     If  the  first, 
your  High  Church  friends  would  get  exactly  what  they  want, 
and  would  repay  your  kindness  to  them  by  a  warmly-expressed 
vote  of  thanks  for  your  services.      The  latter  course  would 
certainly  produce  a  great  effect,  but  hardly  a  lasting  one.     In 
this  impossible  country  no  statement,  however  ably  written, 
holds  out  against  a  powerful  party  more  than  a  few  days.     My 
own  impression  is  that,  in  case  of  resignation,  it  would  be  better 
to  give   reasons.      Still  this  would  make  you  the  mark  for 

A  a  2 


356  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

violent  attacks,  and  would  lead  to  the  attempt  to  push  you 
out  of  the  stream  of  religious  feeling  in  England.  I  do  not 
think  that  any  good  could  be  done  by  a  statement  of  reasons 
so  great  as  might  be  done  by  remaining. 

4.  As  to  the  injustice,  it  is  quite  right  that  Convocation 
should  be  reproached  with  it,  for  the  sake  of  the  Church  of 
England.  But  as  far  as  the  authors  of  heretical  books  are 
concerned,  it  does  them  no  harm,  and  is  indeed  absolutely 
unmeaning.  The  proceedings  of  Convocation  ought  never  to 
give  them  a  moment's  pain  or  uneasiness.  I  don't  think  you 
need  mind  Convocation  thundering  against  opinions  with 
which  in  some  measure  you  agree.  Those  who  hold  such 
opinions  would  wish,  not  that  you  should  sacrifice  yourself  out 
of  a  sense  of  the  wrong  to  them  (if  any),  but  that  you  should 
use  all  the  weight  which  high  station  assists  in  giving,  to 
bring  Convocation  and  the  Church  of  England  to  more  tolerant 
and  also  more  natural  views  of  religion.  .  .  . 

To  MES.  TENNYSON. 

BALLIOL,  November  13,  1861. 

I  was  very  glad  to  see  your  handwriting  again.  I  am  afraid 
the  last  year  has  been  an  anxious  and  troubled  one  to  you. 
Still  a  long  journey,  notwithstanding  its  cares  and  illnesses,  is 
a  good  patch  in  life  to  look  back  upon.  I  have  always  found 
pleasure  in  travelling — after  it  is  over. 

If  I  am  not  troubling  you  I  should  like  to  hear  again  how 
Mr.  Tennyson  is  ;  perhaps,  one  of  the  children  could  write  and 
tell  me.  I  am  very  sorry  that  he  should  be  suffering.  Indeed 
a  poet  deserves  to  have  some  of  the  good  and  enjoyment  that  he 
gives  to  others.  But  it  seems  often  to  be  otherwise.  My  doings 
have  been  so  very  monotonous,  that  they  are  not  worth  nar- 
rating to  you.  I  have  gone  on  with  Plato,  slowly,  but  I  hope 
steadily,  and  shall  finish  in  the  course  of  the  next  Long  Vacation. 
The  interminable  battle  about  the  endowment  of  the  Greek 
Professorship  still  goes  on.  When  I  am  old  and  the  endow- 
ment is  of  no  value  to  me,  it  will  probably  be  carried. 
Dr.  Stanley  is  the  best  of  friends  to  me ;  I  am  afraid  in 
some  degree  to  the  injury  of  his  own  interests. 


Letters,  1860-1865  357 


To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

FEESHWATEB,  ISLE  OF  WIGHT, 

[January,  1862]. 

I  am  so  glad  that  you  are  going  with  the  Prince  of  Wales. 

I  have  received  from  Lingen  a  document 1  that  fills  me  with 
astonishment.  It  is  most  kind,  generous,  thoughtful  to  take 
so  much  trouble  about  me.  It  will  be  one  of  the  happiest 
recollections  of  my  life  that  I  have  received  such  a  testimonial. 
But,  my  dear  friend,  I  cannot  accept  it. 

1.  No  one  ought  to  take  money  from  others  who  is  not  in 
absolute  need  of  it,  or  without  a  definite  public  object. 

2.  I  am  far  from  wishing  to  feast  upon  a  grievance  or  go 
in  for  being  a  martyr  (don't  suppose  this),  but  I  am  afraid  of 
lowering  the  position  in  which  you  and  others  have  placed  me, 
far  beyond  my  deserts. 

3.  I  should  not  feel  on  equal  terms  with  my  great  friends 
and  should  feel  pained  at  my  poor  friends  if  they  gave  me 
money. 

Yet  I  really  feel  the  greatest  contentment  and  satisfaction 
in  the  matter.  I  shall  never  complain  again,  but  work  on 
cheerfully.  If  anything  is  done  for  me,  well ;  and  if  nothing 
is  done,  well  too.  Taking  the  whole  of  my  life  I  am  sure  that 
I  should  do  wrong  in  accepting  a  sum  of  money :  it  is  not 
worth  while.  I  should  never  feel  disinterested  and  could 
never  be  equally  thought  so  again.  .  .  . 

To  A.  P.  STANLEY. 

March  9,  1862. 
MY  DEAEEST  FEIEND, 

The  greatest  trial  that  you  could  ever  have  in  this  world 
has  come  at  last 2.  I  wish  I  could  be  with  you  ;  it  grieves  me 
to  think  of  what  you  must  suffer  when  you  receive  this 
packet.  May  you  have  strength  to  bear  it. 

1  p.  306.  vol.  ii.  p.  75.    Most  of  the  letter 

2  For  Stanley's  answer  to  this      has  been  published  in  the  volume 
letter,  see  Life  of  Dean  Stanley,      of  Dean  Stanley's  Letters,  p.  325. 


358  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

I  have  no  faith  in  words  being  able  to  do  anything  to 
alleviate  such  a  blow.  But  the  remembrance  of  the  strong 
inextinguishable  affection  of  many  friends  may  be  of  some 
value  even  in  this  great  trouble.  Let  me  assure  you  how  many 
care  for  you  as  though  you  were  a  relative,  and  what  a  sense 
there  is  (as  a  person  said  to  me)  of  the  noble  and  useful  life 
you  have  been  leading — how  increasing  this  has  been  since 
your  return  to  Oxford.  Indeed,  though  the  blank  and  the 
chasm  is  great,  other  ties  are  beginning  to  weave  themselves 
for  your  support.  Don't  let  yourself  wither  in  sorrow  like 
one  without  hope,  but  embrace  the  ever  increasing  field  of 
duties  that  is  opening  before  you. 

I  know  that  she  was  father,  mother,  brothers,  and  friends  to 
you  all  in  one.  Considering  her  extraordinary  ability  and 
intense  affection  it  was  most  natural.  And  now  perhaps 
there  is  only  one  thing  that  she  would  have  cared  for  on 
earth,  or  does  care  for  if  the  spirits  of  the  departed  retain  the 
memories  of  such  things :— that  the  end  of  your  life  should 
answer  to  the  beginning  of  it  and  be  consecrated,  not  without 
the  thought  of  her,  to  the  service  of  God  and  of  mankind. 
I  can  hardly  conceal  from  myself  that  life  must  be  for 
years  painful  to  you ;  but  things  may  be  done  in  it  far 
beyond,  and  of  another  sort  from  the  dreams  of  youthful 
ambition. 

Please  write  to  me,  if  you  are  able,  to  tell  me  whether  there 
is  anything  you  would  like  me  to  do  for  you.  I  called  in 
Grosvenor  Crescent  on  Friday  and  saw  your  sisters  :  they 
were  quite  well  and  took  their  great  sorrow  quite  naturally  : 
they  were  full  of  kindness  and  thought  about  others.  You 
need  have  no  anxiety  about  them  :  they  are  sure  to  do  exactly 
what  you  would  wish.  All  that  I  heard  from  them  and  from 
Lady  Stanley  would  have  given  you  comfort  if  accidents  could 
give  comfort  in  such  an  overwhelming  trouble. 

Write  to  me  for  another  reason,  which  is,  perhaps,  a  selfish 
one,  that  life  is  very  dark  with  me  at  present.  I  can't  bear  to 
think  that  I  shall  never  more  see  that  dear  kind  smile  which 
used  to  greet  me  at  Christ  Church :  that  I  have  lost  a  friend 
who  will  never  be  replaced,  who  always  greatly  over-estimated 
me  for  your  sake.  Alas,  too,  we  have  both  of  us  lost  poor 


Letters,  1860-1865  359 

Luke — there  was  no  life  in  Oxford  more  valuable.  And  on 
Monday  I  sent  away  poor  Simcox,  the  young  undergraduate 
that  I  pointed  out  to  you  as  a  genius — as  I  fear  in  consumption. 
He  was  as  innocent  as  a  girl  of  fourteen,  and  had  a  great 
intelligence.  It  grieves  me  that  the  life  should  be  crushed 
out  of  so  rare  and  tender  a  flower. 

I  trust  you  will  have  strength  to  continue  your  journey 
and  fulfil  the  great  trust  which  you  have  undertaken.  Don't 
allow  yourself  to  think  of  any  other  alternative  ;  indeed,  it 
would  be  wrong.  It  was  her  last  request,  and  I  hope  you 
will  not  think  me  hard  for  saying  that  you  ought  to  show 
yourself  able  to  fulfil  such  a  request  and  worthy  of  such  a 
mother.  They  told  me  that  she  never  for  a  moment  regretted 
your  absence, — she  was  glad  of  it  and  said  that  'she  had 
thought  much  of  its  being  better  as  it  is.'  What  should 
you  come  back  for  ?  To  leave  a  duty  and  do  nothing,  for 
nothing  can  be  done.  All  her  arrangements,  as  I  heard  of 
them  from  Lady  Stanley,  were  as  good  and  wise  as  possible, 
and  such  as  might  have  been  expected  from  her. 

Rest  assured,  my  dear  friend,  that  there  is  a  divine  love  as 
well  as  a  human  love  which  encompasses  us,  the  dead  and 
the  living  together,  which  leads  us  through  deserts  and 
solitudes  for  a  time  to  make  us  extend  the  sphere  of  our 
affections  beyond  living  relatives  to  other  men,  to  Himself 
and  to  the  unseen  world.  I  am  most  afraid  of  your  being 
stunned  by  the  first  news ;  not  at  all  of  your  failing  in  the 
duty  which  you  have  undertaken,  if  you  would  reflect  for 
a  moment. 

Let  me  remind  you  that  your  sermon  at  Oxford  was  one 
of  the  last,  if  not  the  very  last  sermon  that  she  could  have 
heard — with  what  happiness  and  pride  !  Will  you  think  that 
I  make  a  singular  request  if  I  ask  you  to  read  over  the  last 
chapters  of  St.  John  when  you  receive  this  news  ? 

Ever  affectionately  yours, 

B.  JOWETT. 

I  shall  often  talk  to  you  about  her  when  you  come  home,  if 
the  subject  is  not  too  sad  a  one. 


360  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

To  MRS.  TENNYSON. 

BALLIOL,  March  31,  1862. 

Will  you  be  very  much  surprised  if  I  propose  a  short 
visit  about  Friday  week?  I  think  of  spending  a  few  days 
with  you  and  then  going  into  lodgings  with  two  of  my 
friends  and  pupils,  either  at  your  house  or  at  Mrs.  Dawes' 
for  a  fortnight. 

I  can't  make  up  my  mind  to  leave  Oxford  next  Term. 
Plato,  you  will  be  glad  to  hear,  has  been  making  good 
progress,  but  this  Term  has  been  sad  to  me,  owing  to  the 
loss  of  two  friends,  Mrs.  Stanley,  and  Mr.  Luke  of  Christ 
Church,  and  I  fear  I  must  add  a  third  (one  of  the  most 
promising  undergraduates  who  ever  came  up  to  Oxford),  who 
appears  to  be  in  a  consumption. 

I  hope  Alfred  is  well,  and  the  boys.  Give  my  love  to  them. 
I  trust  the  poem  is  prospering. 

To  Miss  ELLIOT,  AT  PAEIS. 

OXFORD,  June  4,  1862. 

.  .  .  You  greatly  undervalue  Plato,  who  is  a  most  faithful 
friend  to  me — too  faithful,  for  indeed  I  can't  get  rid  of 
him,  and  he  is  even  now  inviting  me  to  come  and  see  him 
at  Paris  where  he  resides — Bibliotheque  Imperiale1, — and  I 
would  go  if  I  could  get  away.  I  wish  you  would  write 
a  book,  and  then  you  would  be  at  once  absolved  from  all  the 
duties  of  life. 

A  friend  of  mine  says  that  his  heart  always  sinks  within  him 
when  he  sees  the  Dover  cliffs.  Do  you  experience  this  patriotic 
sensation?  I  hope  not.  The  good  people  of  Bristol  will  be 
mighty  glad  to  see  you,  and  especially  the  poor  people. 

Your  friend  Johnny  Symonds  was  examined  to-day,  viva 
voce,  in  the  Schools  ;  I  am  told  that  he  did  capitally,  and  believe 
there  is  no  doubt  of  his  getting  a  first  class.  Every  one 
must  be  glad  of  any  good  or  happiness  or  honour  coming  to 

1  The  chief  MS.  of  Plato's  consulted  in  this  library,  now 
Republic,  Paris  A.,  can  only  be  Bibliotheque  Nationals. 


Letters,  1860-1865  361 

Dr.  Symonds.  I  don't  wonder  at  the  respect  felt  for  him. 
I  never  knew  any  one  who  had  such  a  genius  for  kindness. 

I  hope  you  are  a  Northern  and  not  a  Southern.  ...  I  am 
provoked  with  English  people  for  siding  with  the  South 
because  they  fancy  the  North  are  'snobs.'  "We  were  very 
eager  to  teach  the  North  good  manners  five  months  ago  ;  now 
that  they  are  winning,  we  seem  to  grow  more  respectful 
towards  them. 

Your  letter  is  written  from  the  most  beautiful  place  in  the 
world  1.  The  place  to  which  I  direct  this  is,  I  fear,  losing 
upon  the  whole  rather  than  gaining  in  interest  and  beauty. 
I  am  told  that  you  can  no  longer  stand  on  the  Pont  Henri 
Quatre,  and  look  on  one  side  at  the  Old,  and  on  the  other  at 
the  New,  for  that  all  is  new. 

To  HALLAM  TENNYSON. 

October  31,  1862. 
MY  DEAR  HALLAM, 

It  is  a  long  time  since  I  have  heard  of  you  or  Lionel 
or  Papa  and  Mama.  Suppose  you  write  and  tell  me  the 
news.  .  .  . 

I  have  been  in  Scotland  most  part  of  the  summer.  Such 
a  beautiful  country,  with  mountains  and  streams  and  woods 
and  huge  deer  forests.  (You  must  know  that  these  forests 
have  no  trees  in  them  ;  they  are  only  huge  bare  hills  many 
miles  in  extent.)  And  one  day  I  went  out  deer-stalking : 
I  wish  you  had  been  there.  First  we  went  on  ponies  to 
the  top  of  a  mountain  with  dogs  and  men  and  guns — and 
a  great  way  off  in  a  valley  and  on  the  opposite  hill  we 
saw  two  herds  of  red  deer,  and  they  did  not  see  us,  and  the 
wind  did  not  carry  the  scent  of  us  to  them,  as  it  was  blowing 
the  other  way.  Then  the  people  who  were  with  the  guns 
and  dogs  went  all  round  the  head  of  the  valley  on  the  other 
side,  out  of  sight  of  the  deer,  several  miles,  and  we  sat  at  the 
top  watching  them.  At  last  they  crawled  down  the  bed  of 
a  torrent  (we  could  only  just  see  them  with  a  glass) ;  and 
then  we  heard  two  shots  fired  and  down  came  two  stags,  and 

1  Venice. 


362  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

away  all  the  rest  bounded  with  leaps  that  would  make  you 
wonder.  I  ought  to  tell  you  that  the  stags  were  not  like  those 
you  see  in  a  park,  but  red  deer,  much  larger  and  stronger. 
Give  my  love  to  Lionel  and  to  Papa  and  Mama.  I  am  writing 
this  at  Torquay  and  go  back  to  Oxford  to-morrow. 

I  hope  you  improve  in  chess,  and  learn  to  look  a  few  moves 
forward.  Think  of  the  consequences  in  chess  and  in  some 
other  things  too. 

Ever  yours  affectionately, 

B.  JOWETT. 

Are  you  a  Northerner  or  a  Southerner  ? 

To  DEAN  ELLIOT. 

BALLIOL  COLLEGE,  OXFORD, 

March  4,  1863. 

...  I  begin  to  believe  that  the  ice  of  the  Church  of  England 
is  breaking  up,  and  that  the  mass  of  the  educated  laity,  if  not 
of  the  clergy,  are  learning  to  look  on  these  subjects  in  a  more 
natural  manner.  I  cannot  help  anticipating  that  increased 
freedom  of  opinion  may  lead  to  a  real  amendment  of  life. 
Hitherto,  religion  seems  to  have  become  more  and  more 
powerless  among  the  educated  classes.  Do  we  not  want  a 
Gospel  for  the  educated — not  because  it  is  more  blessed  to 
preach  to  the  educated  than  to  the  poor,  but  because  the 
faith  of  the  educated  is  permanent,  and  ultimately  affects 
the  faith  of  the  poor? 

To  MES.  TENNYSON. 

HIGH  FORCE  INN,  MIDDLETON  IN  TEESDALE, 

July  14,  1863. 

It  is  so  long  since  I  have  written  to  you,  that  I  am  almost 
afraid  of  falling  out  of  acquaintance  with  you  ;  therefore  I  write, 
a  propos  of  nothing,  from  a  wish  to  have  some  tidings  in  return 
about  yourself  and  Alfred  and  the  boys.  I  am  staying  with 
Lord  Boringdon,  a  pupil  of  mine,  at  a  country  inn  amid  the 
moors  in  Durham,  busy  with  Plato,  which  is  an  everlasting 
thing  on  my  hands.  We  are  as  far  out  of  the  world  as  we  can 


Letters,  1860-1865  363 

well  be,  having  no  railroad  within  fourteen  miles,  and  no 
gentleman's  house  within  five  or  six.  I  think  this,  and  a  very 
fine  country,  and  a  warm  welcome,  and  a  curious  geological 
formation,  might  be  an  inducement  to  Alfred,  if  he  comes 
northward,  to  come  and  see  us. 

I  have  been  reading  Eenan's  Vie  cle  Jesus  during  the  last 
few  days.  If  you  have  not  read  it,  shall  I  give  you  Mr.  Punch's 
advice  to  young  gentlemen  disposed  to  marry — don't  ?  Yet 
I  hardly  know,  as  I  incline  to  think  ,that  an  intelligent  and 
educated  person  ought  to  be  willing  to  read  anything  and  find 
a  higher  faith,  not  in  denying  but  in  being  above  everything 
that  can  be  said.  The  book  is  extremely  interesting,  and  will 
no  doubt  have  a  great  effect.  The  Christ  with  which  Eenan 
presents  us  appears  to  me  to  be  essentially  a  '  French '  Christ 
with  some  traits  taken  from  Eenan's  own  character.  The 
miracles  are  for  the  most  part  explained  as  a  sort  of  unintentional 
impostures,  forced  upon  Him  by  the  credulity  of  the  multitude. 
The  book,  though  very  far  from  presenting  the  ultimate  truth 
in  which  the  world  will  rest,  is  very  significant  of  the  change 
which  is  coming  over  the  Christian  Faith.  May  we  be  prepared 
to  meet  it  ! 

I  should  like  to  hear  about  the  boys.  I  hope  you  will  find 
a  good  school  and  send  them  to  it  without  delay,  as  they 
are  getting  too  old  for  the  matriarchal  form  of  government. 

To  LADY  STANLEY  OF  ALDEELEY. 

BALLIOL  COLLEGE, 

November  g,  1863. 

This  note  will  reach  you  in  a  house  of  mourning.  I  was 
sorry  to  hear  of  the  death  of  the  venerable  lady1.  I  am 
glad  to  have  seen  her,  and  talked  with  her  of  '  the  times  before 
the  flood.' 

Will  you  and  Lord  Stanley  kindly  consider  Arthur's  interest 
about  the  Deanery  of  Westminster  ?  There  is  but  one  opinion 
on  the  subject  here.  That  cannot  be  better  expressed  than  in 
the  words  of  one  of  the  opposite  party  :  '  Lord  Palmerston  has 

1  Maria  Josepha,  Lady  Stanley  d.  1863,  aged  92.  See  the  record 
Dowager  of  Alderley  (nee  Holroyd),  of  her  Girlhood,  Longmans,  1896. 


364  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

done  very  wisely  in  removing  him  from  a  position  in  which  he 
was  doing  great  mischief  to  one  in  which  he  will  be  compara- 
tively innocuous.'  I  am  grieved  beyond  measure  that  such 
a  joyful  occasion  as  his  marriage  should  be  spoilt  and  undone 
by  such  a  fatal  error. 

He  has  had  a  great  and  signal  success  at  Oxford.  If  his 
ambition  were  only  preferment,  I  should  be  well  content  to 
let  him  follow  '  limping '  after  the  Archbishop  of  York.  But 
his  ambition  is  of  another  sort  than  this.  At  present  he 
has  one  of  the  first  positions  in  the  country,  touching  both  ends 
of  society — the  Queen  at  one  end,  and  the  poor  students  of 
Oxford  at  the  other.  He  is  not  regarded  as  a  courtier,  but 
as  the  independent  friend  of  the  Queen  and  the  Prince.  If 
he  goes  to  Westminster,  all  this  will  be  changed.  Besides,  he 
is  excellently  fitted  for  Oxford,  and  is  an  admirable  link 
between  College  life  and  the  world.  But  for  London,  except 
perhaps  for  society,  he  is  not  equally  well  fitted.  The  clergy 
are  not  capable  of  being  influenced  in  the  way  that  he  supposes, 
and  his  most  eloquent  sermons  are  ill-suited  to  an  average 
London  audience.  He  can  never  expect  to  have  any  influence 
at  Oxford  again  ;  the  people  here  will  regard  him  as  having 
deserted  them,  and  will  say  (though  untruly)  that  he  has 
degenerated  into  a  courtier.  My  impression  is  that  he  had 
better  turn  his  mind  at  once  to  the  antiquities  of  Westminster 
Abbey.  The  High  Churchmen  will  say,  '  We  always  welcome 
him  in  this  field.'  You  see  that  I,  and  others,  feel  pained 
at  his  leaving  us  without  a  cause.  Since  I  wrote  to  him  on 
Sunday  evening,  I  have  seen  several  persons  who  all  speak 
as  I  do  ;  the  Dean  of  Christ  Church  even  more  strongly. 
I  am  sure  that  a  person  needs  counsel  when  all  his  friends 
think  that  he  is  going  to  make  a  fatal  mistake.  This  makes 
me  write  to  you.  I  will  not  trouble  you  with  any  other 
reasons. 

To  LADY  STANLEY  OF  ALDERLEY. 

[1863.] 

I  write  a  line  to  thank  you  very  much  for  your  note.  If 
the  time  at  which  any  change  can  properly  be  made  has 
passed,  I  shall  do  all  I  can  to  soothe  and  help  Arthur. 


Letters,  1860-1865  365 

To  LADY  STANLEY  OF  ALDEELEY. 

December  6,  1863. 

Arthur's  sermon  l  was  exceedingly  interesting,  and  gave  me 
great  hopes  that  my  sinister  auguries  about  the  Deanery  of 
Westminster  will  not  be  verified.  I  thought  he  had  a  '  poke ' 
at  me  in  one  passage  which  he  has  not  printed,  in  retaliation 
for  various  offences,  such  as  writing  to  you.  I  most  entirely 
desire  his  happiness  and  success. 

To  MRS.  TENNYSON. 

RECTORY,  DEVONSHIRE  SQUARE,  BISHOPSGATE, 

December  21,  1863. 

We  all  go  to-morrow  to  see  Dr.  Stanley  married  at  the 
Abbey.  I  was  very  glad  to  hear  that  you  had  succeeded 
in  finding  a  tutor. 

I  am  afraid  that  I  have  not  thanked  you  for  the  verses2, 
which  I  like  extremely.  The  Homer  is  excellent  (except 
( honey-hearted ').  I  think  the  alcaics  a  very  noble  imita- 
tion, and  I  doubt  whether  people  will  be  found  for  the  future 
to  write  barbarous  hexameters,  of  which  I  am  glad. 

Will  you  give  my  best  love  to  Alfred  and  the  boys  ? 
I  always  think  with  pride  and  pleasure  of  your  friendship 
for  me. 

To  DEAN  STANLEY. 

ALDERLEY,  January,  1864. 

Here  am  I  in  your  old  haunts,  enjoying  the  kindness  and 
hospitality  of  Alderley.  I  suppose  you  have  been  rejoicing  in 
that  unclouded  happiness  which  is  only  granted  to  human 
beings  once  in  the  course  of  a  lifetime. 

Since  I  saw  you  I  have  been  to  Berlin,  and  had  a  good  deal 
of  conversation  with  '  our  friend '  the  Princess.  .  .  .  Nothing 
could  be  kinder  than  she  was  to  me.  I  think  she  left  a  some- 

1  Dean  Stanley's  farewell  ser-          2  Translation  from  11.  viii,  and 
mon  on  leaving  Oxford,  '  Great      '  Experiments.' 
Opportunities.' 


366  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

what  different  impression  from  what  I  got  at  Oxford,  but  not 
a  worse  one.  .  .  .  She  was  very  much  interested  about  your 
marriage,  and  both  the  Prince  and  she  talked  about  you  and 
Lady  Augusta  and  sent  kind  messages.  Will  you  give  my 
most  kind  regards  to  Lady  Augusta  ?  I  scarcely  know  her,  but 
cannot  regard  her  as  a  stranger,  as  she  has  become  yours. 

I  went  to-day  to  see  your  dear  mother's  monument.  The 
inscription  is  excellently  descriptive  of  her. 

To  LADY  STANLEY  OF  ALDERLEY. 

March,  1864. 

I  was  greatly  pleased  at  your  most  kind  letter.  I  often 
think  myself  truly  fortunate  in  having  such  friends.  I 
certainly  would  not  exchange  them  for  the  best  of  positions 
or  preferments. 

I  shall  try  to  avoid  being  'snuffed  out.'  But  I  suppose  that 
life  (which  through  a  combination  of  unfortunate  accidents 
has  been  rather  against  me)  must  be  a  battle,  and  no  battle 
can  be  won  without  a  battle.  I  believe  the  Judgement  was  the 
cause  of  the  defeat '.  I  wonder  what  the  end  of  all  this  will  be. 
It  sometimes  seems  as  if  no  educated  man,  woman,  or  child 
would  have  any  more  belief,  if  religion  is  to  be  identified  with 
the  union  of  Dr.  Pusey  with  the  Record. 

I  have  been  reading  a  very  clever  little  book  (with  a  bad 
title)  by  Miss  Cobbe,  called  Broken  Lights.  It  is  an  ex- 
tremely good  statement  of  the  present  condition  of  things  in 
the  Church. 

To  MRS.  TENNYSON. 

BALLIOL,  April  12,  1864. 

I  write  a  line  to  thank  you  for  the  photograph  of 
Hallam,  which  gave  me  great  pleasure.  I  sometimes  pull 
him  out  and  look  at  his  honest  intelligent  face.  I  hope 
that  I  shall  live  to  be  of  some  use  to  both  the  boys,  remem- 
bering the  long  and  faithful  friendship  which  their  father  and 
mother  have  shown  me. 

1  See  p.  315. 


Letters,  1860-1865  367 

I  hope  that  Alfred  is  not  troubled  at  my  small  criticisms  on 
his  poems.  I  consider  myself  to  be  a  '  foolometer '  and  nothing 
more.  I  should  make  the  '  Sermon '  more  intelligible  for  the 
benefit  of  stupid  people,  and  leave  out  the  '  Sea  Dreams '  and 
'The  Kinglet'  and  (perhaps)  'The  Lincolnshire  Farmer,'  as 
tending  to  dislocate  the  volume — although  a  first-rate  thing 
of  its  kind.  I  have  no  doubt  of  the  general  success  of  the 
volume1.  But  it  should  have  the  character  of  a  new  book 
as  much  as  possible. 

So  you  have  had  Garibaldi  with  you.  What  did  he  say 
and  do  ?  Will  Hallam  or  Lionel  write  and  tell  me  ?  I  think 
he  must  be  intensely  bored  by  fetes,  and  must  wish  himself 
back  in  some  scene  of  real  danger  and  interest.  I  perceive 
that  the  common  people  recognize  that  he  is  their  friend 
and  one  of  them,  and  that  the  higher  classes  fall  in  with 
the  general  admiration. 

I  am  always  anxious  that  Alfred  should  be  employed  about 
some  great  poetical  work  which  should  express  what  this 
age  is  longing  to  have  expressed.  When  old  things  are 
beginning  to  pass  away  and  new  things  to  appear,  I  think 
the  poet's  function  is  very  plain  and  clear.  He  fancies  that 
his  thoughts  have  been  killed  by  the  Quarterly.  My  impression 
is  that  he  could  do  the  work  now,  but  could  hardly  have  done 
it  five-and-twenty  years  ago.  I  know  that  I  bore  him  about 
this.  But  I  shall  hardly  let  him  rest  until  he  makes  the 
attempt. 

I  saw  Mr.  Dakyns  in  passing  through  Clifton  ;  he  is  very 
prosperous  and  much  liked  at  the  College. 

Love  to  Alfred  and  the  boys. 

To  DEAN  STANLEY. 

AsKKIGG,  July  17,  1864. 

...  I  have  some  thoughts,  if  there  is  anything  left  of  me 
from  the  Plato,  of  coming  to  town  for  eight  or  ten  Sundays 
next  year  and  preaching  and  publishing  the  sermons  in  a  small 
volume.  I  don't  mention  this  to  any  one  but  you,  because  so 
many  accidents  of  health,  &c.,  may  prevent. 

1  Enoch  Arden,  &c. 


368  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

...  I  was  sorry  to  see  Tait's  speech  in  the  House  of  Lords ', 
cautious  in  a  certain  way,  yet  so  utterly  unconscious  of  the  real 
state  of  matters.  What  is  Truth  against  an  esprit  de  corps  ? 
The  Bishops  think  that  they  are  fighting  a  few  clergymen  who 
must  be  put  down.  They  are  really  fighting  against  Science, 
against  Criticism,  against  the  Law  or  at  least  the  spirit  of  the  Law, 
against  the  Conscience  and  moral  perceptions  of  mankind  ;  things 
which  I  believe  to  be  invincible  even  when  arrayed  against  that 
figment  of  theologians,  the  Catholic  Church.  The  Bishop 
of  Oxford  certainly  puts  clergymen  in  an  awkward  position  by 
bringing  them  back  to  the  letter  of  their  obligation.  Does  he 
consider  in  what  a  much  more  awkward  position  he  puts 
himself  and  the  Church  by  wholly,  without  a  rag  to  cover  him, 
giving  up  the  very  pretence  of  truth  of  fact  ? 

This  is  a  village  at  the  head  of  Wensleydale  up  in  the  hills, 
far  out  of  the  world  and  the  atmosphere  of  Convocation.  .  .  . 
I  heard  of  your  chivalrous  speech  in  Convocation 2.  I  think  the 
Bishop  of  London  is  encumbering  himself  and  the  world 
a  good  deal  by  proclaiming  the  necessity  of  consulting  Convoca- 
tion on  all  occasions :  especially  at  this  time  when  they  are 
acting  with  so  much  violence.  The  natural  sense  of  truth  or 
fair  play  seems  to  be  quite  ridiculous  in  these  Church  questions, 
and  no  Bishop  can  be  expected  to  utter  them. 

.  .  .  The  Ministry  and  the  foreign  policy  appears  to  me 
utterly  contemptible,  and  a  positive  discredit  to  have  shouted 
for  place  and  office  while  the  Danes  were  bleeding. 

To 


SCOTLAND,  September,  1864. 

I  don't  know  whether  one  colours  objects  with  one's  own 
vision,  but  I  sometimes  think  that  the  state  of  religion  in 
England  gets  worse  and  worse.  The  very  idea  of  the  truth  is 
becoming  ridiculous,  and,  more  and  more,  religious  teaching  is 
losing  its  moral  character.  The  two  great  parties  which  really 
could  say  '  Kise  up  and  walk '  in  the  last  generation,  hardly 

1  Powers  of  Convocation  to  pass  2  Synodical  condemnation  of 
judgement  on  Books  :  Hansard,  Essays  and  Reviews  :  June  22  and 
clxxvi,  1553.  24,  1864. 


Letters,  1860-1865  369 

have  any  moral  purpose  at  all.  The  effervescence  of  their 
spirituality  has  passed  away,  and  cunning,  and  activity,  and 
political  tactics,  have  filled  up  the  vacuum.  Build  churches, 
fill  them  with  Low  Church  ministers,  or  set  up  the  authority  of 
the  Church — that  is  the  great  end.  One  healing  word  of  the 
evils  of  mankind,  one  voice  in  behalf  of  truth  among  the  so- 
called  orthodox  clergy,  I  cannot  hear.  I  am  rather  afraid  that 
the  Established  Church,  which  has  many  advantages,  rather 
increases  the  evil — you  have  not  the  chances  of  Dissent. 

I  often  feel  that  I  should  like,  if  I  could,  to  write  about 
this.  What  seems  to  be  wanted  is  a  restoration  of  natural 
religion,  not  in  the  narrow  abstract  sense,  but  as  based  on  the 
past  histoiy  of  man,  and  as  witnessed  to  by  conscience  and 
faith,  and  supported  by  our  first  notions  of  a  divine  Being. 
Natural  religion  should  so  leaven  and  penetrate  Christianity 
(without  the  word  '  natural  religion '  ever  appearing)  that  the 
doubtful  points  and  doctrines  of  Christianity  should  drop  off 
of  themselves.  Utilitarianism  and  German  theology  have  both 
of  them,  in  different  ways,  a  zeal  for  criticism  and  for  truth 
which  is  very  commendable.  But  neither  of  them  have  ever 
found  a  substitute  for  that  which  they  were  displacing.  They 
have  never  got  hold  of  the  heart  of  the  world.  The  attempt 
to  show  the  true  character  of  the  Pentateuch  and  the  Gospel 
Histoiy  is  very  important  negatively.  But  it  does  nothing 
towards  reconstructing  the  religious  life  of  the  people. 

To  

SCOTLAND,  September,  1864. 

This  is  a  farm-house  in  which  I  am  writing  :  it  is  full  of 
religious  books  of  the  worst  and  most  unmeaning  kind  ;  Tlie 
Armmian  Skeleton,  &c.  The  people's  ways  seem  to  be  honest 
enough,  so  I  suppose  that  they  are  not  much  affected  by  them. 
Still  a  great  opportunity  seems  to  be  utterly  lost  in  the 
education  of  the  common  people.  Half  the  books  that  are 
published  are  religious  books.  And  what  trash  this  religious 
literature  is  !  Either  formalisms  or  sentimentalisms  about  the 
Atonement,  or  denunciations  of  rational  religion,  or  prophecies 

VOL.  i.  B  b 


37°  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

of  the  end  of  the  world,  explanations  of  the  Man  of  Sin,  the 
little  Horn,  and  the  number  of  the  Beast — even  these  last  are 
no  inconsiderable  part  of  English  literature. 

People  sometimes  say  to  me,  'Ah,  you  don't  mind  raising 
a  blister  occasionally,  but  you  won't  tell  us  what  you  think.' 
If  you  won't  think  me  very  egotistical  I  will  tell  you  why 
I  have  as  yet  been  able  to  do  so  little  on  these  subjects.  First 
of  all  because  I  know  that  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  I  could 
in  any  degree  succeed  in  working  them  out,  and  I  certainly 
could  not  succeed  without  entire  health  and  rest,  and  a  good 
deal  of  reading  and  thought.  But  then  at  present  I  have  the 
translation  and  edition  of  Plato  on  hand,  and  besides  this,  my 
pupils ; — this  last  is  a  perfectly  unlimited  field,  and  when 
I  see  men  passing  through  College  or  in  the  University,  to 
whose  course  I  might  have  given  a  twist  in  the  right  way, 
if  I  had  only  had  time  or  energy,  I  feel  very  much  the  re- 
sponsibility of  this.  And  the  result  is  that  I  cannot  possibly 
add  a  third  object  to  the  two  which  I  have  already.  But 
when  Plato  is  completed,  if  I  live,  I  shall  try  schemes  of 
another  sort. 

To  

BALLIOL,  October,  1864. 

I  send  you  a  book  of  Polish  Travels  which  is  written  by 
a  pupil  of  mine1.  I  want  you  to  look  at  the  poem  of 
Krasinski,  at  the  end.  That  touches  a  chord  far  deeper  than 
ordinary  poetry. 

I  sometimes  wonder  that  a  poet  does  not  understand  that 
he  ought  to  be  a  prophet.  But  no  English  poets  seem  to  have 
felt  this.  They  have  art  and  sentiment  and  imagination,  but 
no  moral  force.  Our  dear  friend  Clough  had  a  touch  of  some- 
thing that  might  have  been  great  had  he  been  in  other 
circumstances.  There  is  no  one  whom  I  oftener  wish  for 
back  again. 

I  hope  you  cultivate  peace  of  mind.  I  am  sure  no  one  has 
more  right  to  do  so.  No  one  can  overcome  physical  pain  ; 
beyond  this  I  don't  see  why  there  should  be  one  anxious 

1  W.  H.  Bullock,  Esq.,  now  Mr.  W.  H.  Hall. 


Letters,  1860-1865  371 

moment  or  one  mental  pain  in  our  lives  : — at  least  when  we 
have  determined  to  give  everything  to  God.  Then  I  think 
we  have  fairly  won  and  ought  to  enjoy  rest.  The  thought 
that  should  fill  our  minds  is  His  all-pervading  truth  and  love. 
The  result  is  with  Him.  Why  should  we  vex  ourselves 
over  the  details  of  our  work  ?  or  seem  to  deny  at  each  step 
the  general  principle  on  which  our  minds  really  repose  ? 


To 


INGLEWOOD,  TORQUAY, 

January,  1865. 


I  see  that  you  think  I  am  hungering  after  the  fleshpots  of 
Egypt.  But  indeed  that  is  not  the  case.  I  have  long  been 
aware  that  this  head  is  so  oddly  constructed  that,  if  mitres 
were  to  rain  from  heaven  as  thick  as  hail,  not  one  of  them 
would  fit  it :  also  I  agree  with  Lord  Melbourne,  '  My  dear 
fellow,  would  you  wear  such  a  dress  as  that  for  .£10,000  a  year?' 
Deaneries  have  more  to  be  said  for  them.  But  not  having 
quite  forgiven  '  Anglicanus ' '  for  deserting  me,  I  am  not  going 
to  give  up  the  young  life  of  Oxford  (so  full  of  hope)  for  the 
dead  men's  bones  of  a  Cathedral  town.  Still  I  have  difficul- 
ties ;  the  greatest  of  them  all  is  perhaps  Balliol  College, 
which  is  to  me  'the  War  Office,'  in  which  I  am  only  an 
inferior  clerk,  having  to  force  along  the  inefficiency  of  others, 
and  this  will  probably  continue  all  my  life.  Also,  though 
I  am  aware  of  the  great  opportunity  which  has  been  given  me 
at  Oxford,  and  truly  thankful  to  have  such  an  opportunity, 
I  feel  often  very  uncertain  whether  I  can  use  this,  owing  to 
my  being  tired  in  mind.  Though  I  have  the  will,  and  am 
really  not  afraid,  yet  I  believe  that  I  never  had  the  intellec- 
tual power  which  was  needed  for  the  task.  But  I  am  not 
going  to  trouble  you  with  any  more  such  reflections.  You 
know  Carlyle's  saying,  'Consume  your  own  smoke,'  which 
perhaps  has  the  advantage  of  increasing  the  internal  heat. 

I  entirely  agree  with  you  about  the  TJicodicce 2.     Instead  of 

1  Dean  Stanley  wrote  in  the  newspapers  under  this  nom  de  guerre. 

2  P-  384- 

B  b   2 


372  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xi 

this  sham  religion,  which  is  true  neither  to  the  facts  of 
history  nor  to  human  nature,  people  must  begin  again  and 
gather  first  from  conscience,  secondly  from  experience,  [more] 
of  the  nature  of  God,  and  of  His  manner  of  working  in  the 
world.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  difficulty  in  reconciling  these 
— not  the  old  metaphysical  difficulty  but  a  practical  one. 
For  though  conscience  tells  us  that  God  is  just  and  true,  and 
though  experience  tells  us  that  man  has  an  indefinite  power 
of  turning  evil  into  good,  both  in  himself  and  in  the  world — 
this  hardly  seems  true  for  the  mass  of  mankind  ;  the  stream 
of  improvement  is  so  narrow  in  the  whole  of  the  world  and 
the  whole  of  histoiy,  and  such  a  mere  rivulet,  even  in  the 
improving  countries,  that  instead  of  casting  your  eyes  far 
and  wide  over  the  world,  you  have  rather  to  look  forward  to 
some  ideal  future.  And  so  far  as  religion  has  any  dwelling- 
place  on  earth,  I  suppose  we  should  rather,  like  the  Jewish 
prophets,  get  the  habit  of  looking  onwards  to  the  future  and 
not  backwards  to  the  past.  This  would  be  a  new  kind  of 
Millenarianism  founded  on  fact  and  not  on  the  interpretation 
of  prophecy.  All  countries  and  all  individuals  hang  to  the 
past,  but  they  seem  hardly  to  think  of  the  future  ;  and  the 
tendency  of  the  popular  religion  is  to  make  us  imagine  that 
it  will  be  at  least  as  bad,  if  not  worse  than  the  present,  and 
to  be  cured  by  the  same  fictitious  remedies.  The  world  are 
always  being  told  that  they  are  to  make  no  progress  in  religion, 
and  therefore  they  never  do  make  any  progress. 

The  danger  in  this  Theodicee  is  the  danger  of  being  too 
abstract.  There  seem  to  be  wanting  intermediate  ideas  and 
associations  to  take  the  place  of  the  systems  of  doctrine  in  the 
human  mind.  '  God  is  just ;  God  is  true.'  These  are  great 
'types,'  as  Plato  would  have  said,  in  which  to  cast  our  ideas 
of  God ;  but  where  are  they  to  be  found  in  nature,  and  how 
are  they  to  be  engraven  in  the  human  heart  ?  The  best  chance 
seems  to  me  to  be  through  the  old  forms  of  religion,  showing  that 
this,  more  really  and  persistently  than  anything  else,  was  what 
they  meant,  though  often,  as  for  example  in  their  ideas  of  the 
divine  justice,  led  from  entertaining  such  an  idea  into  a  per- 
version of  all  justice  in  the  popular  doctrine  of  the  Atonement. 
'  Whom  ye  ignorantly  worship,  Him  declare  I  unto  you.'  The 


Letters,  1860-1865  373 

whole  world  and  all  things  in  it,  instead  of  being  secular  and 
external  to  revelation,  needs  to  be  brought  back  within  the 
sphere  of  revelation. 

I  have  been  staying  with  Tennyson,  who  is  in  great  want 
of  a  subject  for  a  poem.  Can  you  think  of  one  ?  It  is  worth 
while,  if  you  can.  I  have  given  him  one — the  '  Grandmother,' 
which  lias  answered,  and  have  been  urging  Galileo  upon  him, 
but  he  is  not  inclined  to  this.  He  has  been  amusing  himself 
with  translating  passages  of  Homer. 

To  MRS.  TENNYSON. 

BALLIOL,  February  27,  1865. 

You  will  have  seen  that  Christ  Church  have  agreed  to 
endow  the  Greek  Professorship — at  last,  after  having  done  and 
undone  the  same  thing  ten  years  ago.  But  Dr.  Pusey,  who 
first  raised  the  opposition,  has  got  his  party  into  a  scrape,  and 
therefore  to  get  them  out  again  has  made  Christ  Church  fulfil 
their  obligation  (not  a  legal  one,  but  I  think  a  moral  one,  as 
they  had  estates  given  them  for  the  support  of  the  Professor- 
ship). I  am  neither  grateful  nor  ungrateful.  You  must  not 
look  a  gift  horse  in  the  mouth.  I  was  rather  glad  that  you 
did  not  write  to  congratulate.  Having  more  money  I  hope 
to  get  more  done  for  the  undergraduates. 

I  hope  Alfred  is  well  and  at  work.  I  always  maintain  that 
he  should  look  forward  with  hope  to  the  remaining  age  of  life, 
as  he  may  do  greater,  more  human,  more  divine  things  than 
he  has  done  yet.  Life  ought  to  harmonize  man  and  become 
stronger  and  also  gentler  as  we  get  older.  ...  I  sometimes 
think  that  poets  have  not  done  enough  for  the  good  and 
elevation  and  inspiration  of  the  world.  I  believe  that  the 
world,  however  bad,  would  put  a  crown  upon  the  head  of  any 
one  who  would  really  instruct  them. 

To  DEAN  STANLEY. 

INGLEWOOD,  TORQUAY, 

March  10,  1865. 

Many  thanks  indeed  for  your  kind  letter.  We  thought 
that  my  mother  was  dying  on  Saturday,  but  since  then  she 


374  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett 

has  revived  and  the  disease  seems  to  have  left  her — she  is 
however  so  very  weak  that  we  are  quite  uncertain  about  her 
recovery,  which  can  only  be  a  very  slow  one.  All  last  week 
she  must  have  been  very  near  death.  I  am  glad  that  you 
saw  her.  I  cannot  thank  you  enough  for  your  kind  letter. 

So  you  wish  me  to  marry.  I  don't  wonder  at  this  when 
I  see  and  rejoice  to  see  how  happy  and  successful  the  experi- 
ment has  been  in  your  case.  But  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  I  am  better  as  I  am  now.  I  could  not  marry  without 
giving  up  Balliol,  on  which  my  life  has  been  spent,  and  pro- 
bably signing  the  XXXIX  Articles  over  again,  or  having  to  make 
a  statement  of  opinions  to  a  Bishop,  if  I  took  a  living  or  could 
get  a  Deanery  or  Canonry  :  and  I  am  obliged  always  to  deduct 
about  £400  a  year  from  my  income  (this  is  a  matter  which 
I  never  mention  and  do  not  you  mention ;  it  has  continued 
nearly  twenty-five  years — I  never  like  to  speak  or  to  think 
of  it).  The  position  at  Balliol  is  a  painful  one,  but  I  get  more 
used  to  it,  and  I  think  the  influence  and  usefulness,  if  I  may 
say  so,  are  greater  or,  certainly,  not  less.  My  chief  desire  is 
to  make  the  most  of  the  years  that  remain.  I  am  glad  of  this 
additional  ,£460  a  year  because  it  will  enable  me  to  do  a  great 
deal  more  than  I  do  at  present  in  the  Professorship  in  the 
way  of  composition  and  additional  lectures,  and  also  leave 
more  leisure  for  permanent  work. 

Life  has  had  a  good  deal  of  painfulness  to  me  (not  this 
matter  of  the  Professorship,  or  the  attacks  of  people  in  the 
newspapers).  But  I  always  feel  that  I  have  had  a  wonderful 
compensation  in  the  devotion  and  attachment  of  friends  and 
pupils.  '  No  one  has  better  friends '  (don't  you  think  so  ?),  and 
among  them  I  reckon  you  and  Lady  Augusta. 


CHAPTER  XII 

EEFOEMS    AT   BALLIOL.       1865-1870 

(Act.  48-53) 

IMPROVED  circumstances — Reforms  in  Balliol  and  the  Univer- 
sity —  Effects  of  experience  —  Characteristics  —  Speculation  and 
action — Health  impaired— Mr.  Robert  Lowe — The  poet  Browning — 
Meeting  with  Mr.  Gladstone— Death  of  his  mother — Second  series 
of  Essays  and  Reviews — Why  never  completed — Scott  made  Dean  of 
Rochester — The  Mastership  in  view. 

'  "DEOSPEEITY  is  the  blessing  of  the  Old  Testament, 
-^-  adversity  of  the  New.  Still  that  Old  Testament 
blessing  would  do  a  great  deal  of  good  to  some  of  us/ 
So  Jowett  had  written  to  Mrs.  Tennyson  in  November, 
1 86 1.  A  portion  of  'that  Old  Testament  blessing'  was 
now  his.  And  as  good  fortune,  like  bad,  sometimes  comes 
'  not  single,'  the  grant  of  the  salary  was  shortly  followed 
by  his  becoming  the  owner  of  the  small  estate  in  the 
West  Eiding  of  Yorkshire  which  derived  to  him  from 
his  grandmother's  family1.  To  a  friend  meeting  him 
in  the  north  of  England  about  this  time  he  said, 
'  I  am  going  to  look  after  my  estate ;  you  did  not 
know  that  I  was  a  landed  proprietor ! '  Years  passed, 
however,  before  the  settlement  of  certain  legal  com- 
plications enabled  him  to  enter  fully  into  his  inheritance, 
and,  by  realizing,  to  shake  off  that  burden.  The  estate 
(at  Birstwith  and  Telliscliffe,  in  the  forest  of  Knares- 
borough)  was  finally  sold  for  about  £5,500. 

1  See  p.  9. 


376  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

It  was  now  that  he  began  those  liberal  gifts  to  younger 
men,  which  were  so  often  repeated  in  later  years.  His 
manner  in  doing  such  things  was  always  felt  to  enhance 
the  benefit1,  and  it  should  be  added  that  while  his 
generosity  had  no  limit,  the  claims  of  kindred  obtained 
the  foremost  place. 

In  November,  1865,  Mr.  Ilbert 2,  who  had  been  elected 
to  a  Fellowship  in  1864,  completed  his  year  of  probation, 
and  his  vote  turned  the  scale  in  favour  of  the  promotion 
of  liberal  measures  in  College  meetings.  This  put  an 
end  to  what  had  sometimes  troubled  Jowett  more  than 
the  '  persecution ' — the  weary  striving  against  the  dead 
weight  of  a  majority  in  his  efforts  to  make  Balliol 
what  he  saw  that  it  ought  to  be.  Some  plans  which 
he  had  long  meditated  now  took  practical  shape.  The 
ground  was  laid  for  a  revision  of  the  College  Statutes ; 
Balliol  Hall  was  established  ;  College  lectures,  instead  of 
being  imposed  compulsorily,  were  left  open  to  the  free 
choice  of  the  undergraduates,  if  only  they  attended 
a  certain  number  ;  the  Divinity  teaching  was  remodelled, 
Jowett  himself  undertaking  part  of  it;  and  the  first 
step  was  made  towards  an  inter-collegiate  system,  by 
having  one  Lecture-list  for  Balliol  and  New  College 
combined.  All  this  was  effected  in  the  years  between 
1865  and  1868.  In  January,  1869,  Jowett  was  appointed 
preacher  for  the  College3.  By  the  summer  of  1868 

1  The     following     paragraph,  to  give   up  his   hope   of  going 

signed  W.  Y.  A.,  appeared  in  the  to  Germany  in  the  vacation.    A 

New  York  Nation,  in  1893,  after  few  days  later  the  Tutor  was  sent 

the  Master's  death  :—  for,    and    received    an   envelope 

'  Meeting    a    young   graduate  with  the  words,  "  I  hope  you  will 

who  was  making  a  living  by  pri-  go  to  Germany :  good-bye  !  " 

vate  tuition,  he  asked  him  how  2  SirCourtenayPeregrinellbert, 

he  was  getting  on ;    the   Tutor  K.C.S.I.,  C.I.E. 

replied  that  he  had  few  pupils  8  Resolutions  of  the  majority 

that  Term,  and  had  been  obliged  (i)    for    abolishing    Catechetics, 


goo 


'  '  9   '     E     r~  '"C  -- --   T-     - ------ r..- 


,:yii'?fpfiii;^p!!'s:|| 
}|fe£fetWMl$ 

il  E  lift  iSK?4'IBEl  ,|.?jffl  5 


1865-1870]  College  Reforms  377 

the  front  quadrangle  had  been  rebuilt  by  "Waterhouse; 
Jowett,  as  usual,  showing  a  keen  interest  in  matters 
architectural ;  and  some  of  his  old  pupils  were  invited 
by  him  to  lecture  in  the  new  Lecture  Room.  An  oppor- 
tunity was  thus  given  to  the  young  Scotch  Professors 
who  were  Balliol  men  (and  having  no  summer  duties, 
were  able  to  give  their  courses  in  the  Easter  Term) 
to  make  their  voices  heard  in  Oxford.  In  lecturing 
on  Sophocles,  I  suppose  that  I  was  his  deputy,  as 
Professor  of  Greek.  Nichol  also  lectured  on  English 
Literature  in  the  Hall  of  New  College,  and  E.  Caird 
on  Moral  Philosophy. 

The  question  of  extending  the  benefits  of  the  Uni- 
versity to  poorer  students  had  greatly  occupied  him  for 
several  years.  A  scheme  which  he  had  proposed  was 
thus  explained  by  him  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  on  October  19, 
1866 :— 

'  I  found  that  my  scheme  of  University  Extension  was  very 
favourably  received.  I  want  men  (i)  to  live  in  lodgings  which 
we  are  to  build  and  furnish,  and  let  at  a  rent  of  £10  a  year  : 
(2)  to  be  allowed  to  attend  the  College  lectures  free :  (3)  to 
have  small  Exhibitions  of  £25  a  year  given  away  by  exami- 
nation among  the  successful  candidates  of  the  middle-class 
examinations1  and  others.  I  reckon  that  paying  £10  a  year 
for  rent,  and  having  nothing  to  pay  for  instruction,  they  could 
live  for  the  academical  year  of  twenty-four  weeks  on  £"50 
a  year,  or,  deducting  the  Exhibition,  for  £25  a  year :  (4) 
I  would  allow  the  ordinary  Scholars  and  Exhibitioners  to  live 
in  the  same  way,  and  their  expenses  would  be  completely 
covered.  The  College  would  take  the  responsibility  of  the 
management  and  instruction  of  all  these  lodgers  out. 

1  At  present  not  a  tenth  or  a  twentieth  part  of  the  ability  of 

(2)  for  restricting  the  number  of  l  These,  since  called  the  Local 
Clerical  Fellowships,were quashed  Examinations,  had  been  estab- 
by  the  Visitor  on  appeal.  lished  in  1861. 


378  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

the  country  comes  to  the  University.  This  scheme  is  intended 
to  draw  from  a  new  class,  and  with  this  object  I  should  propose 
that  the  subjects  of  examination  be  not  confined  to  Latin  and 
Greek,  but  embrace  physical  science,  mathematics,  &c.  The 
great  difficulty  in  working  it  out  is  the  present  state  of  the 
Grammar  schools. 

'  I  think  that  this  College  in  five  or  six  years'  time  would  be 
able  to  give  £600  a  year  towards  such  a  scheme.  But  a  large 
outlay  would  be  required  for  the  building  and  the  Exhibitions. 
I  should  hope  to  raise  this  by  subscription.' 

This  scheme  was  carried  in  College  meeting  without 
a  division,  and  it  was  agreed  also  to  petition  the  Heb- 
domadal Council  to  pass  a  Statute  giving  the  necessary 
permission  to  lodge  out l.  Meanwhile,  in  pursuance  of  the 
main  object,  the  long  since  thought  of  plan  of  a  Balliol 
Hall  was  carried  into  effect:  suitable  premises  were 
rented  in  St.  Giles',  and  the  young  institution  was  placed 
under  the  charge  of  Mr.  T.  H.  Green,  a  lay  Fellow  of 
Balliol  already  much  respected  in  Oxford  as  a  philoso- 
phical teacher  and  thinker.  He  had  friends  amongst  the 
Nonconformists,  and  had  done  excellent  public  service 
as  a  member  of  the  Schools  Inquiry  Commission  of 
1862.  Jowett  wrote  to  H.  H.  Lancaster: 

'At  this  College  we  are  going  to  try  a  small  scheme  of 
University  Extension :  e.  g.  men  to  lodge  out  and  pay  no 
College  fees,  receiving  education  gratuitously  ;  and  we  hope  also 
to  supplement  this  by  Exhibitions.' 

The  Hall  was  still  maintained,  and  proved  a  valuable 
aid,  although  in  1868  it  became  less  essential,  through 
the  success  of  a  larger  scheme.  For  plans  of  University 
Reform  were  again  rife  in  Parliament  and  in  Oxford.  The 
relation  of  the  Colleges  to  the  University  was  much  dis- 

1   From  a  leaflet  entitled  The  '  originated  in  a  request  addressed 

Hebdomadal  Council  and  the  Lodg-  to  the  Hebdomadal  Council  by 

ing  Statute,  Dec,  6, 1867,  it  appears  Balliol  College    at  the    end    of 

that  the  proposed   Statute  had  October,  1866.'    Cf.  vol.  ii.  p.  126. 


i865-i87o]  <•  Lodgers  out '  379 

cussed.  In  1867  two  Statutes  were  promulgated  at  Oxford, 
and  then  several  measures  introduced  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  That  which  found  most  favour  was  Mr.  Ewart's 
Bill,  'To  open  the  benefits  of  Education  in  the  Universities 
to  students  without  obliging  them  to  be  members  of 
a  College.'  Jowett  made  it  known  that  Balliol,  at  all 
events,  was  ready  to  give  teaching  gratis  to  members 
of  the  College  not  living  within  its  walls.  And  on  the 
second  reading,  June  5,  1867,  Mr.  Lowe  remarked  that 
'  to  their  great  honour  the  Tutors  of  Balliol  had  resolved 
that,  if  poor  students  were  allowed  to  become  members 
of  the  College  without  being  obliged  to  live  within  the 
walls,  they  would  give  to  all  such  students  the  benefit  of 
their  tuition — the  best  in  the  University  of  Oxford — 
making  no  charge  whatever  for  it  V  The  Bill  was  referred 
to  a  Select  Committee,  and  Jowett  was  examined  on  July 
15  and  1 6.  He  not  only  accepted  the  principle  of  'un- 
attached students,'  but  suggested  methods  for  applying 
it  successfully,  such  as  the  appointment  of  a  Delegacy  for 
the  purpose,  and  special  arrangements  for  their  tuition 
and  discipline.  He  further  observed  that  to  render  the 
scheme  effectual,  a  good  share  of  the  emoluments,  in  the 
shape  of '  University  Scholarships,'  should  be  thrown  open 
to  them.  Against  those  who,  with  Mr.  Mark  Pattison, 
were  clamouring  for  the  '  endowment  of  research ' 
and  the  absorption  of  College  Revenues  for  the  pro- 
motion of  learning,  he  steadily  maintained  that  learning 
should  not  be  dissevered  from  teaching,  and  that  no 
Professorship  should  be  endowed  without  the  prospect  of 
a  class  -'.  In  the  following  year  (1868)  a  Statute  was  passed 
at  Oxford  by  which  the  requirement  of  twelve  terms' 
residence  in  College,  which  had  remained  for  four 

1  Hansard,  vol.  Ixxxvii.  p.  1613. 

2  Beports  from  Committees,  1867,  xiii.  132  ff. 


380  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

centuries,  was  finally  done  away  \  This  measure  on  the 
part  of  the  University  may  have  been  hastened  not 
only  by  the  petition  above  referred  to,  but  by  the 
action  of  Balliol  College.  No  time  was  lost  by  Jowett 
in  taking  advantage  of  the  Statute.  He  gave  notice 
of  two  important  motions  to  be  proposed  in  College 
meeting  in  October,  1868:  (i)  for  a  remission  of  the 
terminal  charges  to  out-College  students,  and  (2)  for  the 
foundation  of  £40  Exhibitions  (six  to  be  awarded  in  each 
year) :  the  candidates  to  be  elected  after  an  examination 
in  general  subjects  as  well  as  in  Latin  and  Greek.  This 
involved  a  very  serious  sacrifice  of  time  and  money  on 
the  part  of  the  Tutorial  staif,  as  the  Exhibitioners  paid 
no  Tutorial  fees. 

An  important  factor  which  came  in  aid  of  these  improve- 
ments, was  the  munificence  of  Miss  Brackenbury,  who  gave 
a  large  benefaction  for  the  new  buildings,  and  founded 
scholarships,  which  were  applied  to  the  support  of  students 
in  law,  in  history  and  physical  science.  On  October  20, 
1868,  Jowett  wrote  to  his  mother  : 

'  Oxford,  or  rather  Balliol,  is  much  pleasanter  than  formerly '. 
I  have  no  longer  any  trouble  in  carrying  out  my  views,  from 
the  Fellows  ;  and  I  believe  that  we  shall  succeed  in  making 
it  a  really  great  place  of  education.  One  thing  gives  me  great 
pleasure ;  that  our  new  building  is  really  beautiful — the  best 
thing  that  has  been  done  in  Oxford  in  this  way.  An  old  lady 
has  given  us  about  £15,000  towards  the  completion  of  it.  You 
will  be  glad  to  hear  also  that  I  carried  a  plan  for  poor  students.' 

He  said  to  a  friend  who  remarked  on  the  prosperity  of 
Balliol :  '  Yes,  I  think  we  have  repaired  the  old  house 
pretty  well.' 

There  were  other  features  in  the  life  of  Oxford  at  this 

1  The  enactment  that  every  a  responsible  Principal  dates  from 
Scholar  or  Scholar's  servant  1420.  See  Lyte,  Hist,  of  Univ. 
should  dwell  in  a  Hall  governed  by  p.  200. 


1865-1870]  Ritualism  at  Oxford  381 

period  which  were  less  pleasing  to  him,  but  he  does  not 
seem  to  have  regarded  them  with  very  deep  anxiety. 

Sacerdotalism  was  reviving,  in  the  shape  of  Ritualism, 
a  phenomenon  not  unconnected  with  the  then  nascent 
phase  of  Aestheticism.  There  was  also  a  movement  in 
the  Catholic  world  to  take  advantage  of  the  admission  of 
Dissenters  by  bringing  Newman  back  to  Oxford,  and 
establishing  a  Roman  Catholic  College  in  the  University. 
Jowett  witnessed  this  without  alarm  ;  he  was  more  con- 
cerned about  the  new  fashion  of  ritualism  which  seemed 
to  be  spreading  amongst  the  weaker  undergraduates ; 
some  of  whom  got  up  the  semblance  of  a  chapel  in  their 
rooms,  with  vestments  and  incense.  The  silliness  of  this 
'playing  at  church,'  even  more  than  the  superstition, 
annoyed  him  T.  A  similar  feeling  had  been  expressed  in 
a  letter  of  December  24,  1865  : — 

'If  you  were  to  walk  abroad  you  would  be  very  much 
surprised  to  see  the  changes  in  our  London  churches.  There 
is  a  sort  of  aesthetico-catholic  revival  among  them.  I  wonder 
how  many  more  spurious  forms  of  Christianity  are  to  appear  in 
these  latter  days.  Muscular  Christianity,  which  was  upon  the 
whole  a  better  form,  is  gone  out.  A  sagacious  High  Church- 
man whom  I  know  thinks  that  there  will  be  an  Evangelical 
Revival,  which  impresses  me  chiefly  because  he  says  it.  How 
strange  these  "toys  in  the  blood"  are!  I  find  myself  often 
wishing  that  the  Established  Church  were  either  demolished 
or  greatly  enlarged.  Certainly  the  tyranny  is  very  great  on 
education  and  opinion.' 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  project  of  a   Roman 

1  After  describing    this    to    a  sometimes  I  could  compound  for 

friend  he  adds,  '  Is  not  this  very  this  Bibliolatry  by  accepting  the 

funny  ? '  But  he  had  given  one  of  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass.     There  is 

his  undergraduate  pupils  a  mau-  an  idea  in  that.'   Now,  Bibliolatry 

mis  quart  d'heure  on  the  subject,  seemed  to  be  giving  place  to  a 

Once  he  had  said, '  I  almost  think  more  paltry  form  of  superstition. 


382  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

Catholic  College  was  over-ruled,  and  Cardinal  Newman, 
though  he  afterwards  visited  Oxford,  remained  at  the 
head  of  the  Oratory  at  Birmingham. 

From  this  point  onwards  Jowett's  energies  were 
more  than  ever  concentrated  upon  Balliol  and  Oxford ; 
and  the  intensity  with  which  he  now  threw  himself 
into  practical  life  created  an  impression,  which  prevailed 
even  among  those  who  worked  with  or  under  him,  that 
his  mind  was  relaxing  its  former  speculative  bent,  and 
that  the  self-imposed  task  of  translating  the  Classics  was 
lessening  his  interest  in  Theology.  That  this  idea 
represented  only  a  partial  truth  appears  from  the  tenor 
of  the  correspondence  appended  to  this  chapter,  and  will 
be  still  more  evident  when  the  contents  of  some  of  his 
note -books  are  made  public1.  Reason  has  been  shown 
above  why  he  may  have  been  less  communicative  than 
formerly  in  his  intercourse  with  some  of  those  amongst 
whom  his  life  was  cast,  and  whom  he  was  bent  on 
directing  towards  definite  ends. 

His  intellectual  activities  were  to  a  great  extent 
absorbed  in  the  work  on  Plato,  which  appeared  intermin- 
able. But  his  contemplative  faculties  were  not  idle, 
although  the  expression  of  his  thoughts  on  the  greatest 
things,  except  what  could  be  made  relevant  to  the  Platonic 
Dialogues,  seems  to  have  been  reserved  for  intimate 
friends  away  from  Oxford.  The  problem  of  which  he 
had  written  to  Stanley  many  years  earlier,  '  Truth  ideal- 
ized and  yet  in  action2,'  was  still  that  which  he 
persistently  set  himself  to  solve.  Nor  had  he  by  any 
means  relinquished  his  theological  designs,  which  grew 
from  year  to  year.  A  Commentary  on  the  Gospels  was 
to  follow  hard  on  the  translation  of  Plato.  On  this  there 
gradually  supervened  the  vision,  which  never  left  him, 
1  See  vol.  ii.  p.  85,  &c.  2  p.  92. 


1865-1870]  Sermons  in  London  383 

of  a  Life  of  Christ,  and  also  the  conception,  which 
sometimes  competed  with  this,  of  a  short  treatise  upon 
moral  ideas.  These  far-reaching  plans  remained  inevit- 
ably in  abeyance  while  Plato  was  unfinished.  And  there 
was  another  reason  why  the  prosecution  of  such  schemes 
should  be  delayed:— to  have  given  the  world  a  new 
speculative  shock  before  his  practical  efforts  had  taken 
a  firm  hold,  might  have  checked  the  rising  prosperity 
of  Balliol. 

Meanwhile  it  occurred  to  him  that  by  means  of  preach- 
ing he  might  give  form  and  substance  to  those  positive 
views  of  religious  truth  which  he  regarded  as  essential 
and  permanent.  The  expedient  of  making  sermons  the 
vehicle  of  his  theological  views  had  been  suggested  to 
him  by  Mrs.  Vaughan  in  1857,  in  the  hope  that  he 
might  entertain  it  instead  of  republishing  his  work 
on  the  Epistles.  He  then  wrote  to  A.  P.  Stanley: 
*  I  have  two  doubts  about  the  proposal :  (i)  "Whether 
it  is  possible ;  (2)  Whether  it  is  expedient ;  because  it 
seems  cowardly  to  delay  publishing  a  second  edition — • 
which  I  find  it  almost  impossible  to  get  time  to 
complete.'  But  the  reception  of  his  sermons  in  London, 
about  1864,  led  him  to  think  more  favourably  of  the 
notion,  and,  with  this  object,  in  the  summer  of  1865  he 
wrote  a  whole  volume  of  theological  notes.  And  the 
idea  was  further  encouraged  by  the  opportunity  of 
preaching  in  Westminster  Abbey1,  which  came  in  1866 
and  was  repeated  annually  till  1893. 

1  How  little  he  had  sought  for  He    adds,     '  I    wish    you   were 

this  appears  from  a  letter  to  Dean  a    Bishop.    Then    the    national 

Stanley,  of  April  24, 1865 :  '  I  shall  clergy  might  find  a  place  in  which 

not  expect  you  to  appoint  me  to  they  could    dwell   securely.     A 

preach  at  the  Abbey  either  in  this  great    effort   will    be    made    to 

or  in  future  years.    I  really  don't  prevent  this.   That  is  a  reason  for 

care,  and  I  think  this  is  better.'  desiring  it.' 


384  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

The  more  ambitious  plans,  however,  though  post- 
poned, were  not  relinquished,  but  often  occupied  his 
thoughts,  especially  in  vacation  time. 

A  valued  friend — the  same,  if  I  mistake  not,  whose 
MS.,  when  submitted  to  him  by  Arthur  Clough,  had 
'  given  him  the  impress  of  a  new  mind l ' — had  projected 
a  work  on  the  Moral  Government  of  God,  frequently 
referred  to  in  his  letters  as  the  Thdodicee.  His  remarks 
on  this  and  other  high  subjects  show  that  his  specu- 
lative thought  was  still  awake 2.  Nor  does  he  abate  one 
jot  of  heart  or  hope,  although  his  hope  is  less  firmly 
anchored  than  formerly  upon  the  Church  of  England. 
For  his  thoughts  about  the  religion  of  the  future  had 
taken  a  wider  range,  and  seemed  to  draw  him  at 
different  times  in  different  directions.  That  decay  of 
religion  against  which  he  had  so  long  striven,  appeared 
to  him  at  times  inevitable — and  yet  most  lament- 
able, since  no  other  form  of  idealism  could  reach  the 
poor.  But  again,  the  position  of  an  English  clergy- 
man, being  independent  of  his  congregation  and  of 
clerical  synods,  was  favourable  to  freedom.  And  yet 
once  more  the  actual  constitution  of  the  Church  was 
seen  to  foster  prejudice  and  subserviency.  '  The  Church 
is  in  a  bad  way  in  the  nineteenth  century,'  he  wrote 
to  Mrs.  Lewis  Campbell,  'but  not  worse  than  it  has 
always  been.  I  suppose  that  while  using  its  services 
we  ought  not  to  set  our  hearts  either  upon  the  Church 
of  the  present  or  the  Church  of  the  future,  but  to  fix 
our  minds  upon  God  and  upon  our  own  lives.' 

1  See  p.  270.  except  as  their  own  employers. 

2  A  speculation  on  the  Labour  I  cannot  help  hoping  that  Eng- 
question    appears     as    early    as  land,  the  old  country,  may  raise 
June,  1865  : — '  I  sometimes  think  the    condition   of    the    working 
that  the  time  will  come  when  classes  as  much  as  America,  the 
workmen    will    refuse    to   work  new  one.' 


1865-1870]  Self-criticism  385 

But  the  old  hopes  were  ever  ready  to  revive.  'Our 
younger  clergy,'  he  would  say,  '  are  preaching  more 
about  the  Christian  life,  and  less  on  points  of  doubtful 
disputation.'  He  was  ever  scanning  the  horizon  to 
discern  the  rise  of  any  new  spirit  or  mode  of  life,  and 
to  estimate  it.  All  claimed  his  observation  that  entered 
into  the  genius  of  the  time.  His  strong  conservative 
instincts  remained  averse  to  '  new  moralities  V  and  to 
aesthetic  or  sentimental  fancies,  but  he  looked  calmly 
and  steadily  at  all.  To  one  set  of  so-called  phenomena 
indeed  he  deliberately  closed  his  eyes.  In  one  of  his 
earlier  Essays  he  had  spoken  by  way  of  illustration  of 
'  Clairvoyance,  if  there  be  such  a  thing.'  But  in  the 
end  he  refused  to  listen  to  the  whisperings  of  occult 
doctrine  which  from  time  to  time  prevailed.  He  loved 
the  open  day.  'I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  I  can 
account  for  everything;  and  I  feel  that  there  is  some- 
thing in  me  to  which  such  things  appeal.  But  they 
are  so  inextricably  mixed  up  with  charlatanism  and 
lies  that  it  is  mere  waste  of  time  and  intellect  to  inquire 
into  them  V 

Above  all,  at  this  period,  as  at  each  critical  stage 
in  his  career,  he  was  busy  in  reviewing  his  own  life 
and  bent  on  beginning  anew  from  within.  To.  one  who 
asked,  '  Can  a  man  improve  himself  after  forty  ? '  he 
replied,  '  I  am  long  past  forty,  and  I  mean  to  improve 
myself  pretty  considerably,  I  can  tell  you ! '  The  result 
of  this  was  often  apparent  in  his  advice  to  younger 
men.  His  power  of  generalizing  and  of  detaching 
his  thought,  or  rather  the  expression  of  it,  from  all 
personal  content,  often  veiled  what  was  really  the  out- 
come of  intimate  experience :  his  seemingly  abstract 
observations  were  really  autobiographical.  The  trials  to 

1  Cf.  Sir  T.  Browne,  Christian  Morals,  i.  12.        2  Cf.  vol.  ii.  p.  76. 

VOL.  I.  CO 


386  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

which  he  had  been  subjected,  and  the  effort  involved 
in  acting  as  if  they  were  not,  had  given  to  his  mental 
constitution  the  touch  of  iron.  To  be  independent  of 
all  persons,  never  to  worry,  to  listen  more  to  what 
his  enemies  said  of  him  than  to  his  friends1,  to  find 
a  modus  vivendi  with  everybody,  and  above  all  '  never 
quarrel  V  were  among  the  rules  which  he  laid  down  for 
himself.  He  perceived  that  he  had  resented  some  things 
too  keenly,  and  that  his  opinions  of  persons  and  their 
acts  had  been  too  much  influenced  by  his  own  feelings  ; 
also  that  he  had  been  too  free  and  open  in  criticizing 
persons  to  one  another 3. 

In  looking  round  on  his  acquaintance  he  had  been 
amazed  to  think  of  the  amount  of  promise  and  capability 
which  they  had  shown  in  youth,  compared  with  the 
inadequacy  of  their  performances,  whether  the  failure 
arose  from  mistaking  their  career  or  from  the  fatal  indul- 

1  What  did  his  enemies  say  ?  entertained    by    Jowett    on    his 

I  may  be  permitted  here  to  quote  return.    In  giving  an  account  of 

an  adwcatus  diaboli  who  shall  be  his  proceedings  he  happened  to 

nameless :  '  With  a  singleness  of  say,  '  When  a  man  insults  me,  I 

mind  which  is  more  than  merely  always  ask  him  to  dinner.'  Jowett 

Christian,  he  has  an  element  of  burst  into   loud    laughter    and, 

bitterness,  which  nothing  but  his  rubbing  his    hands,     exclaimed, 

solitary  character  can  have  pre-  '  You'll  do,  my  dear  boy,  you  will 

vented    him     from      struggling  do ! ' 

against  and  which  makes  it  no-  3  The  motive  of  this  '  defect  of 
toriously  difficult  for  most  of  his  his  quality '  appears  in  an  early 
equals  in  age  to  get  on  with  him.  letter  to  Stanley  :  '  Here  I  am  at 
With  all  his  goodness  he  is  a  my  old  trade,  Detraction !  I  think 
tyrant  and  careless  of  giving  pain,  the  greatest  evil  of  the  present 
or  rather  can't  help  giving  it.'  day  insincerity,  half  moral,  half 
This  was  a  piece  of  advice  intellectual.'  His  later  feeling 
which  Jeune,  when  Master  of  was,  '  I  want  to  know  people  as 
Pembroke,  had  been  in  the  habit  they  are,  but  to  have  expressed 
of  giving  to  undergraduates.  A  my  thoughts  about  them  some- 
young  relative  who  had  been  times  makes  me  helpless  in  deal- 
pushing  his  fortunes  abroad  was  ing  with  them.' 


1865-1870]  Increasing  Gentleness  387 

gence  of  some  foible  (as  Hamlet  says.  '  the  o'ergrowth 
of  some  complexion ')  ;  and  he  was  resolved,  within  his 
sphere  of  influence,  to  obviate  or  check  such  waste  to 
the  utmost  of  his  power.  Though  often  foiled  he  would 
return  to  the  charge  again  and  again.  Even  amidst 
playful  sallies  (as  in  his  letters  to  Morier)  this  serious 
aim  is  not  lost  sight  of.  But  his  criticism,  while  it 
became  more  searching,  was  more  and  more  softened 
with  gentleness  and  courtesy,  and  at  rare  moments  he  felt 
and  expressed  compunction  for  having  'made  the  heart 
of  the  righteous  sad  '  by  pressing  friends  with  counsel 
which  he  afterwards  saw  to  have  been  unsuited  to  their 
case.  In  these  unwearied  attempts  at  guiding  others, 
he  found — as  Socrates  had  found — men  of  poetic  tempera- 
ment his  chief  difficulty.  The  poet  seemed  to  him  a 
kind  of  prophet  ;  and  he  thought  with  St.  Paul,  that 
'the  spirit  of  the  prophets'  ought  to  be  'subject  to  the 
prophets ' :  but  their  genius  was  too  wilful,  too  uncon- 
trollable. Any  impression  made  on  them  was  sure  to  be 
washed  out  by  the  next  tide.  Yet  he  persevered. 

It  was  sometimes  thought  that  in  urging  people 
against  the  grain  he  had  misread  their  characters,  and 
it  may  be  that  in  individual  cases  he  miscalculated. 
He  was  sanguine  in  his  view  of  possibilities,,  and  apt  to 
credit  others  with  a  power  of  self-conquest  equal  to  his 
own 1.  But  if  his  advice  could  have  been  followed  it 
would  often  have  been  for  good. 

He  found  that  his  own  studies  had  been  too  restricted  ; 
and  he  set  himself  tasks  apart  from  Plato,  such  as 

1  Much  of  his  own  work  was  Stanley.  '  I  should  be  slow  to  un- 
done iiirita  llinernt.  He  was  dertake  again  a  work  requiring 
impatient  of  detail,  vet  he  so  much  minute  labour  as  a  corn- 
laboured  out  four  long  commen-  mentary  on  Scripture.  It  dims 
taries,  each  a  task  sufficient  for  the  eyes  of  the  mind.' 
a  lifetime.  In  1853  he  wrote  to 

C  C  2 


Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP.XII 

reading  through  the  Bible,  Polybius,  Lucian,  Plutarch, 
&c.  Also  he  began  to  see,  in  looking  backward,  that  his 
life  had  been  too  predominantly  intellectual,  and  that 
for  deeper  and  more  lasting  influence  some  fusion  of 
intellect  and  feeling  was  indispensable.  Emotion  as  well 
as  will  and  intellect  there  had  always  been,  but  the 
critical  faculty  had  taken  head,  and  he  now  realized 
anew  the  force  of  Aristotle's  words,  '  pure  thought  alone 
is  ineffectual.'  What  Jowett  says  of  Greek  literature 
became  more  and  more  applicable  to  himself:  'Under 
the  marble  exterior  was  concealed  a  soul  thrilling  with 
spiritual  emotion1.'  "While  more  than  ever  convinced 
that  nothing  in  the  world — not  even  the  Christ  of 
the  Gospels — should  be  exempt  from  criticism,  and  that 
no  fact  of  history — not  even  the  miracle  of  the  Resur- 
rection— should  be  accepted  without  sufficient  evidence, 
he  was  also  more  and  more  persuaded  that  mere  intel- 
lect, however  keen,  was  barren  apart  from  the  full  and 
just  development  of  feeling,  imagination,  and,  above  all, 
volition. 

Reaction  against  his  former  self  is  one  source  of 
continual  growth  in  Jowett's  life-career,  which  must  be 
recognized  in  appreciating  any  part  of  it.  And  yet 
the  combination  of  criticism  with  will  and  sympathy, 
though,  as  has  just  been  said,  it  only  now  came 
fully  into  consciousness,  must  always  be  regarded  as 
one  of  his  most  pervading  and  permanent  character- 
istics. A  friendship,  once  established,  meant  for  him 
that  his  friend  should  have  no  rest  while  any  fault 
remained  unreproved,  any  defect  unremedied.  And  if 
that  friend's  position  in  life  were  such  as  to  give  oppor- 
tunities for  influence  or  distinction,  Jowett  was  never 

1  Introduction  to  the  Phaedrus,  sub  fin.  (vol.  i.  p.  423  of  third 
edition). 


1865-1870]  Persistent  Counsel  389 

weary  of  inciting  to  fresh  exertions,  nor  would  desist 
from  the  attempt  because  of  advancing  age,  although 
he  was  well  aware  that  'miracles  are  only  wrought 
upon  the  young.'  Perhaps  never  was  an  equal  friend- 
ship more  complete  than  that  between  him  and  Stanley, 
from  1844  *°  I849,  and  at  no  moment  was  that  friend- 
ship more  perfectly  attuned  than  when  Jowett  wrote 
the  letter  from  Beaumaris  in  1 846 1,  in  which  he  dwelt 
on  his  friend's  deficiencies,  and  urged  him  to  over- 
come them.  Again  and  again  throughout  their  inter- 
course the  same  persistent  effort  reappears.  At  one 
moment  indeed,  in  1849,  ' the  inexorable  Jowett'  has 
been  somewhat  too  insistent,  and  his  comrade  begins 
to  find  it  irksome  to  have  his  genius  thus  subdued. 
The  irrepressible  Mentor  retires  for  a  space  ;  but  again, 
years  afterwards,  he  sees  a  crushing  blow  impending 
over  his  friend  far  from  home,  when  in  the  midst  of  a 
responsible  task  ;  and  he  writes  to  him  that  letter  of 
thoughtful  sympathy  in  which  he  seeks  to  obviate  a 
possible  shrinking  from  the  course  of  duty  2.  And  only 
a  twelvemonth  before  Stanley  died  came  that  strange 
exhortation  to  '  fix  his  mind  exclusively  on  higher  things,' 
to  '  plan  out  a  course  of  study  and  writing,' — and  in  short 
to  commence  a  ten  years'  labour  that  should  crown  his 
life3.  That  is  the  way  in  which  Jowett  dealt  with 
other  persons  also,  too  numerous  to  think  of.  And  it 
was  the  presence  of  a  firm,  persistent  will,  in  combination 
whether  with  the  criticism  or  the  sympathy,  which  made 
it  so  effectual.  Hence  it  resulted  that  a  letter  of  consola- 
tion from  him,  as  a  friend  remarks,  'was  not  only  the 
greatest  comfort,  but  seemed  to  have  the  effect  of  making 
one  pull  oneself  together.'  There  was  a  depth  of  reality 

1  See  p.  152.  2  p.  359- 

3  Vol.  ii.  p.  177.    Dean  Stanley's  Letters,  p.  442. 


390  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

in  all  his  intercourse  that  is  difficult  to  describe :  inex- 
haustible hopefulness  went  along  with  unaffected  disap- 
pointment even  at  small  defects.  And  when  he  saw 
that  some  fault,  such  as  egotism  or  eccentricity,  was  all 
but  ineradicable,  he  still  laboured  at  overcoming  it. 

But  his  advice  even  when  distasteful  was  always  care- 
fully weighed,  and  if  it  were  sometimes  aimed  too  high, 
this  was  in  accordance  with  his  rejection  of  the  practical 
fatalism  'that  men  can  only  be  what  they  are,'  and 
his  resolute  clinging  to  the  ideal  which  he  saw  so  clearly. 
Still  in  some  cases  it  might  be  rejoined  that  his  counsel 
resolved  itself  into,  '  Do  as  I  mean  to  do,'  or  '  Do  not 
as  I  did  formerly.' 

He  tried  to  meet  every  man,  woman,  and  child  on  their 
own  ground,  yet  in  such  a  way  as  to  impress  on  each 
of  them  something  that  was  all  his  own.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  in  general  society,  especially  in  Oxford, 
the  scene  of  so  many  responsibilities,  this  persistent 
effort  was  apt  to  create  about  him  an  atmosphere  of 
restraint.  His  presence  was  felt  to  dominate  all  that 
surrounded  him,  giving  an  almost  painful  thrill,  and, 
unconsciously  to  himself,  tending  to  damp  the  initiative 
of  other  men.  When  a  topic  had  been  raised  that 
interested  him,  he  at  once  put  the  question  that  went 
directly  to  the  heart  of  the  matter ;  and  there  he  left  it. 

His  ideas  were  gaining  at  once  in  speculative  range 
and  comprehensiveness  and  in  directness  of  aim.  He 
reasoned  more  and  more  in  the  concrete,  striving  at 
every  step  to  take  in  the  many-sidedness  of  things  and 
persons,  and  to  look  steadily  at  the  whole  of  everything. 
Plato  in  the  Phaedrus  has  imagined  a  dialectic  in  which 
the  various  complexity  both  of  outward  things  and  of 
personalities  is  to  be  comprised.  Jowett's  mind  seemed 
always  to  be  approaching  some  such  goal,  and  in  con- 


1865-1870]  Characteristics  391 

versation  lie  sought  to  present  that  aspect  of  a  complex 
subject  which  he  conceived  best  suited  to  his  respondent, 
and  to  the  purpose  in  view.  In  this  sense  he  might  be 
said  to  argue  ad  hominem:  to  the  believer  he  appeared 
a  sceptic,  to  the  sceptic  a  believer,  to  the  Humanitarian 
an  Economist,  to  the  Conservative  politician  a  Socialist, 
and  so  forth.  If  told  that  some  liberal-minded  friend 
was  growing  conservative,  he  would  say,  'Is  he  ?  the 
rascal !  I  must  prick  him.'  In  his  fearless  outlook  on 
the  future  he  kept  clear  possession  of  the  present  with 
all  its  conditions ;  and  if  these  were  altered  in  a  manner 
contrary  to  his  previous  ideas,  he  adapted  himself  to 
the  altered  state  with  unfailing  readiness  of  resource. 
Thus  practical  and  speculative  thoughts  were  never  wholly 
sundered,  yet  they  were  resolutely  kept  apart. 

One  thing  is  very  noticeable  throughout,  as  to  his 
estimate  of  character:  his  judgement  of  those  with 
whom  he  had  to  do  invariably  softened  when  they  were 
dead.  This  may  seem  a  commonplace  ;  but  it  is  true 
of  Jowett  in  a  special  degree.  It  then  appeared  how 
deeply  he  had  appreciated  what  was  best  in  them,  and 
that  the  temporary  difference  which  had  veiled  this 
appreciation  even  from  himself  had  been  magnified  by 
the  earnestness  with  which  he  had  sought  to  perfect 
what  he  thought  defective,  and  to  draw  those  round  him 
on  towards  some  goal  of  perfection.  In  this  effort,  as  he 
was  ready  to  acknowledge,  he  was  sometimes  mistaken, 
and  failed  to  take  sufficient  account  of  individual 
peculiarities. 

Two  sayings  of  Erasmus  might  well  be  applied  to  him 
in  every  period  of  his  career  :  first,  what  he  said  of  Colet : 
'  Conversation  is  his  chief  pleasure,  and  he  will  keep  it 
up  till  midnight,  if  he  finds  a  companion ' :  and,  secondly, 
what  he  said  of  Sir  Thomas  More:  '  When  he  can  give 


392  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

nothing  else,  he  gives  advice.  He  is  patron  general 
to  all  poor  devils.' 

The  energy  with  which  he  threw  himself  into  each 
fresh  avocation  led  to  a  forgetting  of '  the  things  behind,' 
that  was  sometimes  a  little  provoking  to  those  who 
worked  with  him.  In  resuming  a  piece  of  work  which 
had  been  laid  aside,  instead  of  taking  it  up  again  where 
it  was  left,  he  seemed  to  regard  it  as  a  res  Integra  to 
be  considered  over  again  from  the  beginning.  This 
was  one  of  many  causes  of  apparent  procrastination. 

The  period  now  under  review  was  in  many  ways 
a  time  of  new  departures.  For  example,  he  was  gradually 
becoming  aware  of  impending  changes  in  Political 
Economy.  '  I  used  to  know  the  old  science,'  he  says ; 
'  the  new  applications  rather  puzzle  me,  but  I  shall 
have  to  make  them  for  myself.' 

Two  public  questions  mainly  occupied  him  during  these 
years  :  (i)  the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  and  (2)  Education. 

(i)  His  attention  had  been  recalled  to  the  former 
subject  through  the  sympathy  with  philanthropic  efforts, 
which  began  at  Clifton,  in  connexion  with  the  Destitute 
Incurables1.  He  now  becomes  more  deeply  concerned 
about  the  state  of  the  lower  classes  generally  and  the 
best  methods  of  dealing  with  it. 

In  1865  he  wrote  elaborate  papers  on  the  subject, 
in  which  he  took  up  the  question  of  equalizing  rates 
on  property,  and  the  best  means  of  using  the  money 
when  obtained  ;  and  also  made  a  number  of  suggestions 
as  to  (a)  Sick  ;  (b)  Aged  ;  (c)  Incurables  ;  (d)  Mad  persons  ; 
(e)  Destitute  children.  It  was  in  this  connexion  that  he 
became  finally  convinced  of  the  importance  of  Sanitary 
Reform.  Although  he  had  long  held  generally  that 
moral  improvement  could  not  be  effected  without 

1  P.  343- 


1865-1870]  Primary  Education  and  Mr.  Lowe     393 

material  changes,  a  certain  fastidiousness,  and  perhaps 
some  prejudice  from  early  association1,  had  kept  his 
mind  from  dwelling  on  the  subject.  But  when  once 
persuaded,  he  held  firmly  to  the  importance  of  these 
things.  '  That  is  a  good  gospel  that  you  preach,'  he 
said  to  a  friend  who  was  zealous  about  such  matters. 

(2)  With  the  Education  question  his  mind  had  long 
been  busy,  and  it  was  stimulated  into  fresh  activity 
on  the  subject  through  his  increasing  intimacy  with 
Mr.  Eobert  Lowe.  He  had  always  thought  that  a  great 
opportunity  for  educational  purposes  was  lost  for  the 
country  by  statesmen  taking  no  advantage  for  this  end 
of  the  high  tide  of  prosperity  which  followed  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  Corn  Laws.  He  now  pressed  his  views  very 
earnestly  upon  Mr.  Lowe,  whose  name,  after  the 
enactment  of  the  Revised  Code,  was  more  identified 
with  popular  education  than  that  of  any  other  public 
man.  Two  letters  on  the  subject  attest  his  eager 
interest  and  his  characteristic  way  of  going  to  work : — 

[1867?] 

'  I  had  a  very  pleasant  stay  with  Gorgias 2,  who  is  the  best 
of  friends  with  me.  I  can  hardly  tell  whether  he  will  be 
induced  to  take  up  the  subject  of  Education.  We  had  a  sort 
of  consultation  about  it  at  which  L.  assisted,  and  lie  said  that 
he  would  see  what  could  be  done  if  opportunity  offered.  L. 
and  he  both  thought  that  it  was  useless  for  any  one  to  bring 
forward  the  subject  who  was  not  in  the  Ministry.  They  agreed 
that  the  first  step  was  to  have  educational  districts,  on  which 
the  inspectors  could  report,  and  that  this  would  involve  divesting 
the  inspectors  of  their  denominational  character.  Gorgias 
thought  strongly  that  a  general  permissive  Bill  for  rating 
should  be  introduced,  and  was  quite  willing  to  support  this. 
But  he  was  against  introducing  any  compulsion  on  parents.' 

1  See  the  letter  to  F.  T.  Palgrave,  p.  414. 

2  i.e.  Mr.  Lowe. 


394  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

[1868.] 

'  I  went  and  took  luncheon  with  Lowe,  who  appears  to  be 
profoundly  in  earnest  about  Education,  and  talked  extremely 
well  about  it.  I  ventured  to  give  him  a  sort  of  lecture  about 
being  more  conciliatory,  and  the  necessity  of  uniting  persons 
and  classes  if  he  means  to  do  anything  with  Education.  He 
quite  agreed,  and  thought  that  he  would  draw  up  a  short  Bill. 
I  am  more  hopeful  about  him  than  I  ever  was  before,  notwith- 
standing his  desertion  of  the  classics1.' 

He  visited  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lowe  at  their  country  house 
near  Caterham,  Surrey,  and  on  one  occasion  entertained 
the  company  there  by  reading  long  passages  from  his 
translation  of  the  Phaedrus. 

The  edition  of  the  Republic,  which  he  had  hoped  to 
finish  in  a  year  or  two,  was  now  thrown  aside  for 
the  translation  of  the  whole  of  Plato,  that  is  to  say, 
of  the  genuine  Dialogues,  to  which  some  doubtful  ones 
were  afterwards  added.  It  is  not  wonderful  that  the 
end  of  this  labour  seemed  to  fade  before  him  as  he 
advanced  in  it.  For  his  design  enlarged ;  he  revised 
again  and  again,  and  he  never  turned  aside  from 
other  calls  upon  him,  which  grew  and  multiplied. 
Also,  he  was  at  last  forced  to  limit  his  hours  of  labour. 

For  the  long  strain  of  the  preceding  years  had 
told.  '  All  things  come  to  those  that  wait ; '  but  some- 
times they  come  when  the  power  of  using  them  is 
partly  spent.  He  had  never  had  a  severe  illness,  but 
his  health  from  time  to  time  had  been  unequal 2,  though 

1    In  lecturing  at   Edinburgh  wearing  of  broadcloth  to  people 

(Nov.    1867),    and   in   a    speech  who  had  not  a  shirt  to  their  backs.' 

to    the     Liverpool    Philomathic  2  In  the  summer  of  1858,  when 

Society  (Jan.  1868),  Mr.  Lowe  was  struggling  with  his  second  edi- 

understood  to  disparage  classical  tion  of  St.  Paul,  he  made  a  short 

education.    Jowett  told  me  that  expedition  in  the  Lake  country, 

when  taxed  with  this  Lowe  had  '  Even  then,'  says  the  Warden  of 

said,  'I  could  not  recommend  the  Merton,  'he  felt  that  he  could 


1865-1870]  Loss  of  Health  395 

his  great  recuperative  powers  enabled  him  to  rally  from 
brief  intervals  of  exhaustion  and  depression.  But  in 
the  years  1866  and  1867  he  became  gradually  convinced 
of  the  necessity  of  husbanding  his  physical  powers  in 
order  to  make  the  most  of  life.  He  tried  certain  ex- 
periments in  diet,  and  for  a  time  even  attempted  total 
abstinence1.  As  early  as  1861  he  had  complained  to 
Dr.  Symonds,  of  Clifton,  of  '  headache,  powerlessness  of 
brain,  want  of  sustained  thought,  and  imperfect  memory  V 
A  throat  affection  to  which  he  was  liable,  especially  in 
springtime,  now  threatened  to  become  chronic.  He  had 
overworked  his  eyesight :  the  pince-nez,  so  familiar  in 
the  recollection  of  many  friends,  became  a  necessity,  and 
this,  with  the  use  of  the  steel  pen,  which  he  reluctantly 
adopted,  tended  to  alter  his  handwriting.  His  advice 
to  friends  in  sickness,  which  often  both  consoled  and 
strengthened  them,  was  '  to  keep  the  mind  above  the 
body.'  'Little  time  is  lost  through  ill- health,  though  much 
is  lost  through  idleness,'  he  would  say  in  encouraging 
a  delicate  pupil 3 ;  and  he  had  a  profound  belief  in 
the  possibility  of  dominating  infirmities  by  an  effort  of 
will ;  but  he  now  found  that  there  were  limits  to  this. 
A  friend  who  had  shared  many  of  his  thoughts,  now 

not  trust  his  heart  for  mountain  help  one  of  his  dependents  by  his 

climbing :   and  in  walking  from  example. 

Langdale  to  Lodore  he  paused  so  2  Life  of  J.  A.  Symonds,  vol.  i. 
often  and  advanced  so  slowly  up  p.  188.  His  power  of  memory 
the  steep  ascent  of  Rossett  Gill  as  often  seemed  dependent  on  con- 
to  make  it  impossible  to  reach  our  ditions  of  health.  But  it  is  also 
destination  before  dark.1  Cf.  Life  true  that  the  very  vividness  of  his 
of  J.  A.  Symonds,  vol.  i.  p.  187 :  thoughts  tended  to  swallow  up 
1  Toiling  up  Constitution  Hill  from  details  in  general  views,  and  that 
the  cathedral  (at  Bristol),  he  the  intensity  of  each  new  phase 
said,  "  Our  young  legs  don't  mind  of  mind  obliterated  past  impres- 
this,  do  they  ?  "  puffing  all  the  sions  for  the  time, 
time.'  3  Benjamin  Jou-ett,  by  Lionel 
1  His  motive  in  this  was  to  Tollemache,  p.  i. 


396  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

pressed  upon  him  the  expediency  of  remitting  somewhat 
the  intensity  of  his  continuous  labour.  '  I  perceive,'  he 
wrote,  'that  you  will  keep  me  living  and  thinking  to 
the  utmost  of  my  power.  And  I  am  very  glad  to  have 
a  friend  who  can  help  me  to  do  this.  Twenty  years 
of  life  probably  remain  to  both  of  us,  and  how  much 
might  be  done  in  that  time,  with  the  experience  that  we 
already  have  and  the  increasing  influence  that  time  gives.' 
He  yielded  to  his  friend's  advice  in  promising  to  cease 
from  study  always  at  midnight ;  and  when  this  did 
not  prove  sufficient,  he  cut  down  his  work  for  a  time 
to  three  hours  a  day.  Writing  from  Alderley  Edge  in 
March,  1867,  he  says : — 

'  I  am  not  going  to  work  hard,  but  only  three  hours  a  day, 
and  never  more  than  an  hour  at  a  time,  or  after  eleven  o'clock 
at  night.  I  think  that  you  are  partly  right  and  have  done  me 
a  great  service.' 

'  But  I  mean  to  do  more  in  three  hours  than  I  used  to 
do  in  six,'  he  said  to  me.  He  had  given  similar  advice 
to  pupils  who  suffered  from  overwork,  as  early  as  1853. 
'  I  owe  him,'  says  one,  '  what  I  consider  the  most  valuable 
piece  of  practical  advice  which  I  ever  received :  to  limit 
my  reading  to  five  hours  a  day,  including  lectures,  but 
always  to  read  with  concentrated  attention  V 

This  change  in  his  habits  was  on  the  whole  maintained, 
although  the  late  hours  were  after  a  while  replaced  by 
an  hour  or  more  every  morning  before  breakfast.  In 
the  course  of  1867  he  hit  upon  another  plan  for  easing 
his  labours.  His  College  servant,  Knight,  had  a  son, 
Matthew 2,  now  aged  fourteen,  to  whose  education  Jowett 
had  given  attention  personally :  making  him  repeat  the 
Latin  Grammar  and  lines  of  Virgil  at  odd  times  (for 
example,  while  his  dinner,  brought  from  the  kitchen  half 
1  Cf.  p.  203.  2  See  vol.  ii.  p.  3,  &c. 


1865-1870]  Pupils  at  Balliol  397 

an  hour  before,  was  lying  still  untouched  within  the 
fender).  Under  Jowett's  supervision  Matthew  had 
learned  to  write  a  beautiful  hand,  and  had,  as  Jowett  once 
said  to  me  before  the  boy,  'a  good  sprag  memory1.'  He 
now  employed  him  regularly  in  transcribing  the  notes  to 
the  Eepublic  -,  and  in  other  ways  as  an  amanuensis.  The 
use  he  made  of  Matthew  may  serve  to  exemplify  Jowett's 
method  of  composition.  A  page  which  had  been  written 
would  be  scribbled  over  with  corrections  almost  innumer- 
able, and  given  to  Knight  to  copy.  The  copy  was  again 
corrected  till  it  was  almost  illegible,  and  then  had  to  be 
copied  over  again,  and  so  on.  His  amanuensis  became,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  a  favoured  pupil. 

'He  would  occasionally  ask  me  to  write  essays  for  him,' 
says  Mr.  Knight,  'but  he  taught  me  most  more  Socratico,  by 
conversation.  We  talked  of  everything  under  the  sun,  and  he 
endeavoured  to  arouse  my  interest  in  the  most  varied  topics. 
This  educational  process  was  the  more  effective  because  he 
expected  me  to  understand  all  of  which  he  spoke,  and  so  com- 
pelled me  to  use  my  mind  to  the  utmost  of  my  power.  Finding 
that  I  had  a  taste  for  Architecture,  he  gave  me  a  copy  of 
Fergusson's  Architecture,  and  used  to  discuss  the  various 
buildings  in  Oxford  with  me,  and  to  speak  of  the  Cathedrals 
which  he  had  visited.' 

If  the  completion  of  his  literary  labours  was  frequently 
delayed,  the  work  of  teaching  and  educating  was  unin- 
terrupted. The  cry  of  heresy  did  not  succeed  in  warning 
off  men  of  high  standing  in  the  country  from  sending 
their  sons  to  Balliol.  It  is  needless  to  enumerate  well- 
known  names,  but  one  connexion  with  a  noble  house 
deserves  to  be  mentioned,  as  it  was  the  commencement 

1  Shakespeare,    Merry     Wives,  transcribed  for  him  by  the  kind- 
iv.  i.  ness  of  Mr.  Jackson  of  Worcester, 

2  A  great  part  of   the    com-  a  former  pupil, 
mentary    had    been    previously 


398  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

of  one  of  Jowett's  deepest  and  most  lasting  friendships. 
The  Honourable  Francis  Charteris,  son  of  Lord  Elcho l, 
came  to  Balliol  in  1865. 

Other  pupils  belonging  to  this  period  who  were  de- 
stined to  after  distinction  were :  "William  Addis,  William 
E.  Anson,  Ernest  H.  Coleridge,  Henry  Craik,  John  Arthur 
Godley,  C.  B.  Heberden,  F.  H.  Jeune,  Andrew  Lang, 
Kenneth  Muir  Mackenzie,  Ernest  J.  Myers,  Richard 
Lewis  Nettleship,  William  Wallace,  John  Cook  Wilson. 
Also  of  exceptional  promise,  though  foiled  by  ill  health 
or  early  death,  were  Alfred  Barratt  and  Edwin  Harrison. 
The  latter  was  one  of  Jowett's  chiefest  friends. 

From  1867  onwards  Jowett  held  the  College  in  his 
hand,  and  he  was  practically  Master.  Still  his  ends 
could  not  be  effected  without  a  certain  amount  of  friction. 
His  views  were  steadily  opposed  by  a  small  but  compact 
minority;  nor  were  his  followers  in  Balliol  the  sort 
of  persons  who  could  be  absolutely  reckoned  on  to  vote 
mechanically  in  his  favour.  They  were  men  of  active 
intellects  and  independent  minds,  who  shared  his  liberal 
principles,  but  did  not  therefore  accept  his  fiat  on  every 
practical  question.  The  continual  need  of  persuasion 
and  management,  and  of  over-ruling  opposition,  grew 
more  and  more  distasteful  to  him  ;  it  was  the  one  crook 
in  his  lot ;  and  it  may  be  that  the  painfulness  of  the 
position  in  part  accounted  for  what  seemed  to  his  younger 
colleagues  the  undue  vehemence  with  which  he  some- 
times pressed  his  advantages.  Long  pent-up  forces  are 
impetuous  when  they  find  an  outlet,  and  impetuosity, 
although  mostly  held  under  firm  control,  and  often 
unsuspected,  was  one  of  his  native  characteristics. 

The  annual  progress  amongst  his  friends  in  Scotland, 
preceding  and  following  his  summer  sojourn  at  Pitlochry, 
1  Now  the  Earl  of  Wernyss. 


1865-1870]  Friends  in  Scotland 


399 


Tummel  Bridge,  or  Grantown,  had  now  become  an 
established  custom  with  him.  His  visits  to  Lord  Airlie 
at  Cortachy  and  the  Tulchan,  and  to  Linlathen  and 
Camperdown,  as  well  as  to  St.  Andrews,  Edinburgh,  and 
Glasgow,  were  amongst  his  rare  pleasures.  A  visit  to 
Cortachy,  in  which  he  met  Lord  Kimberley  and  others,  is 
referred  to  in  a  letter  to  his  mother. 

The  competition  for  vacant  Scotch  Professorships,  on 
the  part  of  old  Balliol  men,  continued,  and  became 
painfully  interesting.  John  Nichol's  rejection  for  the 
Logic  Chair  at  Glasgow  in  1864  had  been  a  keen 
disappointment  to  Jowett ;  and  when,  in  1866,  the  Chair 
of  Moral  Philosophy  in  the  same  University  fell  vacant, 
he  was  disposed  to  press  Nichol's  claim.  Edward  Caird 
was  unwilling  to  stand  against  Nichol.  But  there  were 
other  strong  candidates ;  and  when  it  became  known 
that  a  majority  of  the  electors  would  in  any  case  not 
vote  for  Nichol,  Jowett,  with  Nichol's  full  concurrence, 
urged  Caird  to  declare  his  candidature.  In  the  successful 
result  of  this  policy,  no  one  rejoiced  more  heartily 
than  Nichol  himself.  Jowett  was  much  pleased  with 
the  way  in  which  Nichol  took  his  friend's  election  and 
his  own  failure. 

Jowett  made  a  special  visit  to  Edinburgh  in  the  winter 
of  1866,  having  agreed  to  give  two  lectures  at  the  Philo- 
sophical Institution  on  Socrates1.  He  stayed  with  the 
Sellars.  On  this  or  some  similar  occasion,  in  the  Sellars' 
drawing-room,  Professor  Blackie  sang,  unasked,  a  song  of 
his  own  making  on  '  The  Burning  of  the  Heretic ' :  then 
stepped  across  to  Jowett  and  said,  '  I  hope  you  in  Oxford 
don't  think  we  hate  you.'  '  We  don't  think  about  you,' 
was  the  impassive  reply. 

Again,  in  the  spring  of  1869,  soon  after   his   friend 

1  The  first  of  these  will  be  published  in  Lectures  and  Addresses. 


400  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

Sir  A.  Grant's  election  to  the  Principalship  of  Edinburgh 
University,  he  delivered  before  the  same  audience  two 
lectures  on  Education,  (i)  in  Youth  and  (2)  in  After  Life, 
which  were  much  appreciated1.  He  also  preached  for 
Dean  Ramsay  in  St.  John's  Episcopal  Church,  taking 
for  his  subject  the  Divisions  of  Christendom 2. 

On  his  southward  journeys  he  was  a  frequent  guest 
at  Lea  Hurst,  in  Derbyshire,  the  seat  of  Mr.  Nightingale. 

A  new  acquaintance  of  great  interest  comes  now  to  be 
mentioned.  Mr.  Robert  Browning  had  returned  to 
England  from  Florence  in  1865,  after  the  death  of  Mrs. 
Browning,  and  was  engaged  in  composing  The  Ring  and 
the  Book,  which  appeared  in  1868.  He  was  anxious  to 
have  his  son  educated  at  Oxford,  and  made  Jowett's 
acquaintance.  A  warm  friendship  was  quickly  formed 
between  the  two  men;  not  the  less  sincere  on  Jowett's 
part  because  he  was  not,  as  yet,  an  admirer  of  Mr. 
Browning's  poetry.  '  Ought  one  to  admire  one's  friend's 
poetry  ? '  was  one  of  the  few  questions  of  casuistry  which 
I  have  heard  him  raise.  But  he  was  keenly  interested 
in  the  story  which  Browning  had  told  him  as  forming 
the  subject  of  the  new  poem.  Jowett's  first  impressions 
of  his  new  acquaintance  were  thus  communicated  in 

a  letter  to  a  friend : — 

'June  12,  1865. 

'  I  thought  I  was  getting  too  old  to  make  new  friends.  But 
I  believe  that  I  have  made  one — Mr.  Browning,  the  poet,  who 
has  been  staying  with  me  during  the  last  few  days.  It  is 
impossible  to  speak  without  enthusiasm  of  his  open,  generous 
nature  and  his  great  ability  and  knowledge.  I  had  no  idea 
that  there  was  a  perfectly  sensible  poet  in  the  world,  entirely 
free  from  vanity,  jealousy,  or  any  other  littleness,  and  thinking 
no  more  of  himself  than  if  he  were  an  ordinary  man.  His 

1  These  will  also  appear  in  the  volume  mentioned  above. 
z  The  text  was  i  Cor.  xii.  13. 


1865-1870]  Hospitalities  401 

great  energy  is  very  remarkable,  and  his  determination  to  make 
the  most  of  the  remainder  of  life.  Of  personal  objects  he 
seems  to  have  none  except  the  education  of  his  son,  in  which 
I  hope  in  some  degree  to  help  him1.' 

Another  friendship,  maintained  by  many  pleasant 
visits,  was  that  for  Sir  Henry  Taylor  and  his  family. 
This  he  probably  owed  to  Mrs.  Cameron. 

In  the  summer  of  1867,  being  now  more  in  funds  than 
formerly,  he  sought  to  return  some  of  the  hospitality 
which  he  had  received.  He  thus  describes  the  occasion 
to  a  friend  who  could  not  be  present:  'What  do  you 
think  that  I  have  been  doing  for  the  last  two  days? 
Entertaining  a  large  party  of  folks,  Mr.  Browning,  Lady 
Airlie,  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold 2,  Mr.  Munro  of  Cambridge, 
Mr.  Lecky,  the  Lingens,  &c.  Mr.  Lecky  is  an  extremely 
tall  and  very  thin  man,  with  a  free  expression  and  a  great 
deal  of  genius.  I  like  him  and  Mr.  Munro  of  Cambridge 
(who  is  a  great  scholar)  very  much.'  It  appears  from 
his  letter  to  Mrs.  Tennyson  of  July  29,  1867,  that  he 
had  indulged  a  vain  hope  of  persuading  the  Laureate 
to  be  of  the  party,  and  so  to  effect  a  meeting  between 
Tennyson  and  Browning. 

These  festivities,  repeated  in  May,  1869,  were  a  char- 
acteristic anticipation  of  many  similar  hospitalities 
during  his  Mastership,  which  was  not  yet  in  view.  He 
felt  the  interruption  to  his  work,  but  threw  himself  into 
the  unaccustomed  business  with  hearty  enjoyment ;  over- 
coming, as  well  as  he  could,  his  habitual  shyness.  While 
expecting  his  guests,  he  said  to  me,  quoting  Abraham 
Slender,  'I  had  rather  than  forty  shillings  I  had  my 

1  The  lastwords  I  heard  Brown-  and  said,  'Jowett  knows  how  I 

ing  utter  were  spoken  to  myself  love  him.' 

shortly    after    his    visit    to    the  2  See  Matthew  Arnold's  account 

Master,  in  the  summer  of  1889.  of  the  dinner  in  Hall,  Letters  of 

He  grasped  my  hand  at  parting  Matthew  Arnold,  vol.  i.  p.  365. 

VOL.  I.  D  d 


402  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

book  of  songs  and  sonnets  here  V  When  they  had  all 
departed,  he  said,  '  It  is  sad  dissipation ;  but  it  is  worth 
doing,  though  one  can  do  nothing  else  for  the  time.' 
It  may  be  mentioned,  in  passing,  that  his  rooms  in  the 
Salvin  Building  had  been  decorated  with  a  collection  of 
works  of  art :  etchings  of  Rembrandt,  casts  from  Michael 
Angelo,  &c.,  which  he  had  gathered  from  time  to  time 
with  the  advice  and  assistance  of  his  friend,  Mr.  F.  T. 
Palgrave 2. 

In  the  following  year  (1868)  he  took  Browning's 
poems  with  him  into  the  country,  and,  when  staying  with 
Mr.  Evelyn  Abbott  on  his  way  north,  at  Filey,  in  York- 
shire, he  read  one  night  a  passage  from  Luria3  'very 
beautifully.'  He  thought  that  Browning's  poetry  showed 
great  learning,  but  that  the  world  had  succeeded  better 
in  assimilating  Tennyson.  '  Browning  deserves  a  shady 
First,'  he  said,  as  reported  by  Mr.  Tollemache.  To  me 
somewhat  earlier  he  had  said, '  Browning  has  more  know- 
ledge, wit,  and  force  of  mind  than  Tennyson,  and  I  can 
imagine  him  at  any  moment  rising  to  the  first  rank  in 
poetry.  At  present  he  is  hardly  a  poet.' 

Two  matters  of  grave  importance  claimed  his  atten- 
tion in  1869-1870,  the  Voysey  trial  and  the  project  for  a 
second  series  of  Essays  and  Reviews.  The  prosecution  of 
the  E-ev.  Charles  Voysey  for  heretical  doctrine  became 
imminent  in  the  course  of  1869.  In  spite  of  many 
wise  cautions  from  Jowett4,  Mr.  Voysey  had  found  it 

1  Shakespeare,    Merry    Wives,      for  a  clergyman  holding  liberal 
i.  i.  opinions  to  be  too  cautious  in  his 

2  See  p.  285.  mode    of   stating   them  ?     Such 

3  Act  v.     The  speech  of  Luria      caution  is  not    timorousness   or 
beginning  '  My  own  East ! '  self-interest,   but  the    condition 

*  e.  g.  '  Shall  I  state  to  you  my      of  any  real  usefulness.'     (Feb.  8, 
conviction  that  it  is  impossible      1861.) 


1865-1870]  Mr.  Charles  Voysey  403 

impossible  to  avoid  this  entanglement.  Far  from  re- 
proaching him,  Jowett  continued  to  advise  and  help 
him :  attending  meetings  of  counsel,  suggesting  the  line 
of  defence,  &c.  But  the  case  in  its  earlier  stage  had 
gone  adversely,  and  the  constitution  of  the  Committee 
of  Privy  Council  at  this  juncture  made  it  improbable 
that  they  would  reverse  the  judgement  of  the  court 
below.  Jowett  saw  that  to  proceed  further  would 
endanger  freedom,  not  for  himself,  but  for  others  in  the 
Church  of  England.  The  following  letters  to  Mr.  Voysey 
will  show  what  course  he  took : — 

OXFORD,  February,  [1870]. 

I  do  not  think  that  there  would  be  any  giving  up  of  the 
truth  or  of  the  cause  of  freedom  by  your  resignation.  That 
appears  to  me  to  be  the  right  course,  if  your  counsel  and 
lawyers  are  of  opinion  that  there  is  no  hope  of  a  favourable 
issue  on  the  principal  points. 

Your  reason  for  resigning  would  be  generally  appreciated, 
viz.  that  you  fear  lest  by  trying  the  question  under  unpropitious 
circumstances  you  may  curtail  the  liberty  of  others.  Your 
sermons  and  the  articles  of  accusation  against  you  contain 
most  of  the  distinctive  tenets  of  the  Anglican  Church,  and 
it  would  appear  ridiculous  and  impolitic  to  settle  these  at 
one  swoop  by  the  authority  of  Phillimore,  Chelmsford,  and 
others,  and  would  probably  overthrow  the  tribunal  itself. 
That  is  my  view,  and  is  in  general  that  of  H.  B.  Wilson, 
with  whom  I  had  the  opportunity  of  conversing  about  the 
matter  last  week.  I  should  like  you  to  hear  his  opinion  ; 
for  he  has  experience  and  is  very  acute  in  these  matters. 
I  should  like  also  to  talk  the  matter  over  with  Bowen, 
whom  I  shall  see  this  day  week. 

Thei-e  is  no  hurry,  I  suppose,  about  the  resignation,  as 
the  cause  cannot  come  on  until  November,  and  perhaps 
not  then.  I  shall  not  mention  your  possible  intention 
of  resignation  to  Bowen  or  to  any  one,  and  I  would  advise 
you  not  to  speak  of  it  yourself.  It  will  require  some 

D  d    2 


404  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

consideration  if  you  determine  to  resign :  What  is  the  best 
time  and  manner  of  doing  it?  I  shall  be  glad  to  help  in 
any  way  that  I  can. 

With  sincere  regard  and  respect, 

Believe  me,  yours  most  truly, 
B.  JOWETT. 

TUMMEL  BRIDGE,  PITLOCHRY,  N.B., 

August  14,  [1870}. 

I  have  nothing  to  say  in  answer  to  your  note  except  to 
assure  you  that  I  have  never  considered  you  as  under  the 
slightest  personal  obligation  to  me.  In  giving  my  name  to 
your  defence  fund  I  acted  on  public  grounds. 

As  to  the  main  question,  I  still  think  with  Dean  Stanley, 
Mr.  Westlake,  Lord  Justice  James,  and  others,  that  it  is 
very  undesirable  to  pursue  this  trial  further ;  that  nothing 
can  be  gained  and  that  something  will  probably  be  lost 
in  the  way  of  liberty;  that  though  to  myself  personally 
these  decisions  are  not  important,  they  affect  very  hardly 
a  great  many  Liberal  clergymen ;  and  also  that  the  discussion 
of  the  limits  of  the  Articles  and  Liturgy  leads  to  casuistical 
questions  (like  No.  90)  about  the  meaning  of  the  words, 
which  the  public  ill  understand,  and  which  do  not  tend  to 
the  cause  of  truth. 

I  saw  Messrs.  Shaen's  letters  some  time  ago.  But  I  do 
not  think  that  the  decision  of  the  York  Court  does  bind  the 
Church  ;  and  that  I  find  to  be  the  opinion  of  others. 

Although  his  own  special  work  in  Theology  had 
been  relegated  to  the  future,  he  now  consented  to 
undertake  a  more  immediate  task,  which  was  nothing 
less  than  to  contribute  two  long  essays  to  a  second 
series  of  Essays  and  Reviews.  Mr.  H.  B.  Wilson  had 
been  pressing  for  this  for  some  time  past ;  and  Dr.  John 
Muir,  of  Edinburgh,  the  Sanskrit  scholar,  was  eager 
in  promoting  the  idea.  Other  possible  contributors  are 
mentioned  in  the  letter  to  Professor  Caird  appended 
to  this  chapter. 


1865-1870]        New  Testament  Revision  405 

Jowett  had  applied  to  Grant,  who  declined,  on  the 
ground  that  his  share  in  such  a  volume  might  cripple 
his  usefulness  in  Edinburgh  \  Mr.  "Wilson  himself  under- 
took two  essays,  (i)  on  the  Principles  of  the  Reformation, 
and  (2)  on  the  Sacramentarian  Theory,  and  Jowett  finally 
chose  for  his  subjects  the  Religions  of  the  World  and 
the  Reign  of  Law.  For  the  former  he  read  largely 
and  wrote  many  notes,  but  neither  essay  was  completed. 
The  volume  came  to  nothing,  chiefly,  I  believe,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  illness  of  Mr.  Wilson,  whose  health, 
already  broken,  was  shattered  by  a  stroke  of  paralysis 
shortly  after  this.  But  Jowett  himself  may  well  have 
hesitated,  after  his  appointment  to  the  Mastership,  to 
risk  another  storm  while  his  honours,  in  which  Balliol 
was  involved,  were  '  in  their  newest  gloss.'  The  only 
portion  of  the  projected  work  which  saw  the  light,  so 
far  as  I  am  aware,  was  my  own  essay  on  the  Revision 
of  the  English  New  Testament,  which  was  published 
in  the  Contemporary  Review,  in  May,  June,  and  August, 
1876. 

The  subject  recalls  another  consideration.  The  Com- 
mittee of  Revisers  began  to  sit  in  1870.  It  is  perhaps 
one  of  the  most  regrettable  consequences  of  the  theo- 
logical odium  which  surrounded  Jowett's  name,  that 
he  was  passed  over,  not  only  for  the  Oxford  Theological 
Board  of  Studies  (which  he  had  recommended  in  1848), 
but  for  this  more  important  committee,  which  included, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  the  name  of  Dr.  Kennedy,  as 
Professor  of  Greek  in  the  University  of  Cambridge2. 
A  remark  of  Jowett's  on  the  work  of  the  committee 
when  it  appeared  is  perhaps  worth  recording  here. 

1  He  had  accepted  a  share  in      ment  had  come  in  the  way. 
the   former  volume   (see  above,          2  The  selection  rested  with  the 
p.  275),  but  the  Madras  appoint-      Convocation  of  the  English  Clergy. 


406  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

'  They  seem  to  have  forgotten  that,  in  a  certain  sense, 
the  Authorised  Version  is  more  inspired  than  the  original.' 

Early  in  the  October  of  1869,  Jowett  met  Mr.  Gladstone 
at  Camperdown  House,  Dundee,  where  both  were  guests 
of  the  Earl  of  Camperdown.  It  was  not  the  first  occasion 
of  their  meeting1 ;  but  a  country  house  gives  opportunities 
which  are  not  to  be  had  in  London,  and  for  the  few  days 
which  Jowett  spent  at  Camperdown  the  politician  and 
the  thinker  were  much  together.  He  had  looked  forward 
with  great  eagerness  to  this  visit,  and  his  host  reports 
that  he  had  never  seen  him  so  absorbed  in  any  one.  They 
talked  incessantly  for  hours  in  the  library  and  about 
the  grounds.  Jowett  was  very  much  provoked  one 
morning  when  Gladstone  had  insisted  on  rising  early 
and  going  to  hear  an  Episcopal  preacher  at  Perth. 
Mr.  Gladstone  at  this  time  was  considering  the  outline 
of  his  first  Land  Bill  of  1870,  and  Ireland  was  one  chief 
topic  of  their  conversations.  Mr.  Gladstone  tried  to 
impress  on  Jowett's  mind  that  no  one  hitherto  had 
understood  the  Irish,  or  had  rightly  sympathized  with 
them.  Jowett  came  straight  from  Camperdown  to 
St.  Andrews,  and  told  me  of  the  great  interest  he  had 
felt  in  this  meeting.  '  It  was  the  first  time,'  he  said, '  that 
any  one  of  such  great  simplicity  had  been  in  so  exalted 
a  position.'  It  would  be  curious  and  interesting  to  mark 
the  sequel ;  but  it  seemed  to  him  to  be  full  of  peril, 
because  the  great  statesman  was  'so  powerful  and  so 
unsound.'  He  observed  that  Mr.  Gladstone  failed  to 
recognize  the  truth,  that  the  moral  excuses  for  political 
crime  ought  not  to  make  a  statesman  less  firm  in 
repressing  it. 

On  the  Sunday  after  his  return  to  Balliol  in  October, 

1  They  had  breakfasted  together  in  London. 


1865-1870]         The  Loss  of  his  Mother  407 

lie  was  summoned  to  Torquay,  where  his  mother  was 
dying.  She  died  on  October  16.  Her  death  moved  him 
deeply,  and  called  up  many  old  memories.  The  following 
passage  from  a  sermon  which  he  preached  a  few  years 
afterwards  may  be,  to  some  extent,  as  the  Rev.  W.  H. 
Langhorne  has  suggested,  a  picture  drawn  from  recollec- 
tions of  his  own  family : — 

4  The  thought  of  our  childhood  touches  us  when  we  remember 
that  we  were  once  as  they  are  now — surrounded  by  brothers 
and  sisters  who  have  gone  different  ways  in  life :  some  to 
distant  lands,  where  they  rest  and  will  no  more  return  to  us ; 
and  others,  like  ourselves,  have  been  fighting  the  battle  of  life 
here  for  twenty  or  thirty  years  or  more,  to  rest  like  them 
before  long. 

1  The  history  of  any  family  recalls  many  recollections  known 
to  themselves  only  :  of  little  acts  of  kindness  done  to  one 
another,  and  inseparable  companionships,  and  old  servants  and 
their  rare  devotedness  and  self-surrender :  of  some  mistakes 
and  misunderstandings,  too,  which  may  have  arisen  out  of 
differences  of  character.  We  can  see  now  how  they  might 
have  been  avoided,  but  we  could  not  place  ourselves  above 
them  at  the  time. 

'The  old  family  life,  the  house  in  which  we  dwelt,  the 
circle  which  met  round  the  fire  or  the  dinner-table,  the  very 
books  and  furniture  we  used,  are  still  present  in  the  mind's  eye, 
and  the  memory  of  these  is  sweet  to  us.  They  are  a  sort  of 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  in  the  past,  and  to  some  of  us  there  seem 
to  be  none  who  can  look  on  us  as  others  have.' 

After  this  he  spent  what  time  he  could  at  Torquay, 
haunted  by  his  mother's  image,  ruminating  on  old 
memories,  and  finding  the  quiet  of  the  bereaved  house- 
hold conducive  to  uninterrupted  labour.  'I  like  this 
place,  at  which  I  always  do  more  and  with  less  exertion 
than  anywhere  else.' 

His  work  proceeded  as  before,  without  check  or 
intermission.  Returning  from  Torquay  to  Oxford  on 


408  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

November  18,  lie  was  once  more  'immersed  in  juvenile 
English  Essays,'  and  'feeling  that  a  new  place  puts 
the  sorrow  in  a  new  light.'  He  found  satisfaction  in 
the  election  to  a  Fellowship  of  Mr.  Lewis  Nettleship, 
'a  University  scholar,  and  a  man  of  some  genius  as 
well,  with  a  slight  trace  of  Clough  in  him.'  dough's 
sister  was  at  this  time  looking  for  some  post  in  which 
she  might  promote  the  higher  education  of  women,  and 
Jowett  conferred  often  with  his  friend  William  Rogers, 
of  Bishopsgate,  about  a  scheme  for  a  new  girls'  school  of 
which  they  hoped  that  she  would  be  the  head.  The 
arrangement  was  not  concluded,  for  shortly  after  this 
Miss  Clough  saw  her  way  to  starting  Merton  Hall  at 
Cambridge,  the  germ  of  Newnham  College,  over  which 
she  presided  so  long  with  eminent  success.  But  the 
fact  is  noticeable,  as  marking  Jowett's  first  contact  with 
a  movement  which  sprang  into  vigorous  life  soon  after 
this  ;  but  from  which  at  first  he  seemed  to  hold  back, 
with  his  habitual  tendency  to  resist  practical  novelties. 

It  is  pathetic  to  recall  the  fact  that  Mrs.  Jowett  did 
not  live  to  see  the  dawn  of  a  new  hope  about  the  Master- 
ship, which  had  been  the  object  of  her  son's  frustrated 
ambition  sixteen  years  before.  The  first  trace  of  this  in 
his  correspondence  appears  in  a  letter  of  December  26, 
1869  (the  day  after  his  mother's  birthday),  written  from 
Torquay,  with  reference  to  a  visit  to  Caterham  in  the 
previous  week : — 

'I  had  a  delightful  visit  to  Mr.  Lowe,  who  is  a  devoted 
friend  to  me.  It  is  impossible  to  see  him  at  home  and  not  to 
be  charmed  with  him.  .  .  .  He  said  that  he  had  been  told  by 
Gladstone  to  ask  whether  he  could  do  anything  for  me.  I  told 
him  that  I  did  not  intend  to  leave  Oxford,  and  therefore  that 
the  only  thing  that  could  be  done  for  me  would  be  to  make 
Scott  a  Dean  or  a  Bishop.  Mr.  Lowe  thought  that  this  would 


The  Mastership — Letters,  1865-1870      409 

be  done,  and  set  about  the  matter  with  great  zeal.     But  I  do 
not  expect  this,  nor  much  care  V 

Dr.  Scott  was  appointed  to  the  Deanery  of  Rochester 
in  June,  1870,  and  Jowett's  election  as  his  successor  in 
the  Mastership  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  The  news 
came  to  him  when  staying  at  a  country  house,  the  home 
of  a  friend.  '  He  leant  his  head  against  the  mantel- 
piece and  prayed  aloud,  "  0  spare  me  a  little,  that  I  may 
recover  strength,  before  I  go  hence,  and  be  no  more  seen."  ' 
He  wrote  to  his  sister : — 

'  You  will  have  seen  that  Scott  is  to  be  the  new  Dean  of 
Kochester,  which  will  make  me  Master  of  Balliol.  This  is 
Lowe's  doing.  I  find  great  good  will  in  Oxford  about  the 
proposal.  I  consider  this  is  the  second  piece  of  good  luck 
which  I  have  had  in  life— the  election  to  the  Fellowship  thirty- 
two  years  ago  was  the  first. 

'  I  wish  that  our  dear  mother  had  been  alive  to  hear  this 
news.' 


LETTERS,  1865-1870. 
To  R.  B.  D.  MOEIEE. 

Address  OXFORD,  March  7,  [1865]. 
MY  DEAR  SIR  JoHN2, 

I  knew  that  you  would  have  died  for  me  (at  least  after 
the  fashion  in  which  your  renowned  ancestor  died  on  the  field 
of  battle) ;  but  I  had  no  idea  that  you  would  write  to  me 

1  It  appears,  however,  from  a  the  vacant  bishopric  of  Man- 
previous  letter,  written  early  in  Chester  was  given  to  Jowett's  old 
October,  that  he  had  already  been  acquaintance,  Fraser  of  Oriel, 
counting  on  the  possibility  of  pre-  2  He  jestingly  compared  his 
ferment  coming  to  Scott.  Even  'fat  friend'  to  Falstaff ;  see 
now  this  was  a  hope  deferred,  for  Shakespeare,  i  Henry  IV,  v.  4. 


4io  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

of  your  own  accord.  I  did  not  believe  such  a  thing  to  be 
within  the  compass  of  nature. 

I  am  delighted  to  hear  of  the  commissionership l.  That  is 
a  real  opportunity  for  doing  something.  .  .  . 

You  are  very  good  in  rejoicing  at  my  endowment.  Christ 
Church  are  getting  great  credit  for  this,  which  they  did  and  undid 
ten  years  ago,  and  which  Dr.  Pusey  has  now  carried  because  he 
knew  that  he  must  be  beaten  in  the  University.  But  I  shan't 
look  a  gift  horse  in  the  mouth.  I  was  always  very  fond  of 
money,  for  money  is  a  means  of  doing  mischief,  and  I  have 
always  been  a  great  lover  of  mischief.  I  am  not  insensible 
to  the  value  of  £125  a  quarter,  though  on  the  other  hand  I  do 
not  know  how  to  get  on  without  the  character  of  a  'martyr.' 
To  be  a  martyr  is  a  delightful  position  and  just  suits  me  ;  it 
consists  in  doing  nothing,  and  that  I  understand.  As  an  un- 
feeling but  sagacious  friend  once  said  to  me,  '  Next  to  having 
a  good  place,  there  is  nothing  like  a  good  grievance.'  How 
much  more  truly  might  you  be  called  a  martyr — to  the  gout ! 
Like  your  great  ancestor,  again,  you  have  found  that  there  was 
something  mysteriously  wrong — in  the  great  toe.  Yet  don't 
suppose,  my  dear  fellow,  that  I  am  not  sorry  you  should  have 
been  in  bed  for  six  weeks.  .  .  . 

When  do  you  go  to  Vienna  ?  and  will  you  be  in  England 
next  summer?  I  wonder  whether  your  wife,  who  is  worth 
ten  of  you  for  any  practical  purpose,  would  write  and  tell  me. 


To 


OXFORD,  March  16,  1865. 

Prayer,  as  at  present  conducted,  is  an  absurdity,  if  it  means 
praying  for  fine  weather,  &c.  (faith  must  snap  in  the  face  of 
universal  obvious  facts) ;  or  an  ambiguity  of  the  worst  kind, 
if  the  Theologian  refuses  to  say,  in  reference  to  an  action  of 
everyday  life,  whether  it  is  supposed  to  have  this  effect  or  not. 

There  is  nothing  that  more  requires  to  be  stated  than  that 
prayer  is  a  mental,  moral,  spiritual  process,  a  communion  or 

1  Morier  was  British  member  of  to  inquire  into  the  Austrian  tariff 
the  Mixed  Commission  at  Vienna  (March,  1865). 


Letters,  i86^-i8jo  411 


conversation  with  God,  or  an  aspiration  after  Him  and  resig- 
nation to  Him,  an  anticipation  of  heaven,  an  identification  of 
self  with  the  highest  law,  the  truest  idea,  the  blending  of  true 
thought  and  true  feeling,  of  the  will  and  the  understanding, 
containing  also  the  recognition  that  we  ask  for  nothing  but  to 
be  better,  stronger,  truer,  deeper  than  we  are.  I  am  afraid 
that  the  anthropomorphism  of  much  of  what  is  called  revealed 
religion  has  obscured  the  natural  religion  of  men  on  this  subject. 
On  the  old  theory,  all  answers  to  prayer  were  necessarily 
miraculous,  and  therefore  the  belief  in  them  could  not  be 
otherwise  than  unreal. 

I  think  that  'the  human  race  is  inspired.'  But  how  short 
the  moments  of  inspiration  have  been  —  a  little  stream  in  Greece 
and  Judaea  —  dammed  up  after  a  century  or  two  in  the  original 
fountain  :  —  all  other  progress,  or  nearly  all,  is  but  the  dilution 
of  this  water  of  life.  Great  men  like  Luther  and  Bacon  have 
been  inspired,  but  how  muddy  the  inspiration  has  been  with 
the  previous  elements  !  Even  Spinoza  is  a  schoolman  warring 
against  scholasticism  :  I  mean  in  such  things  as  his  notion 
of  substance  and  the  importance  that  he  attaches  to  mere  logical 
demonstration. 

To  — 

May  28,  1865. 

I  send  you  some  books,  one  very  good  book  among  them,  the 
works  of  a  Saint,  and  one  very  bad  book,  Fable  of  the  Sees  — 
one  of  those  books  which  are  condemned  equally  by  the  world 
and  the  Church  ;  by  the  world  because  it  is  partly  true,  and 
by  the  Church  because  it  is  partly  false,  or  vice  versa  —  one 
of  those  books  which  delight  in  turning  out  the  seamy  side 
of  society  to  the  light.  (Don't  read  it  if  you  object  to  the  coarse- 
ness of  parts.)  Dr.  Johnson  says,  'Mandeville,  sir,  never  did 
me  any  harm,  but  he  opened  my  views  into  life  very  much/ 
Nor  do  I  think  it  a  bad  thing  to  read  the  book  with  patience 
and  ask  how  much  is  true  of  ourselves. 

Also  I  send  you  some  of  my  translations  1  of  Plato.  I  have 
done  the  whole  of  Plato  in  that  way.  If  you  look  at  any- 

1  This  refers  to  the  Analysis,  The  Republic  was  still  the  only 
which  was  now  nearly  complete,  dialogue  fully  translated. 


4T2  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

thing,    read  the   Crito,  and  the  end  of  the  Phacdo  and   the 
Apology. 

Plato  has  been  a  great  labour.  Yet  I  like  being  in  such 
good  company  always.  There  is  nothing  better  in  style  and 
manners,  not  even  'in  the  first  circles.'  I  more  and  more 
wonder  at  the  things  which  he  saw  and  prophesied.  Hardly 
anything  important  about  law  or  natural  religion  which  has 
ever  been  said  may  not  be  found  in  Plato. 

To  — 


PlTLOCHRY,  August  31,  1865. 

I  certainly  mean  when  my  Plato  is  finished  to  devote  two 
or  three  years  to  preaching,  giving  up  my  whole  mind  to  this 
and  publishing  the  sermons.  (I  try  to  collect  '  stock '  for 
myself ;  that  is  the  term  cooks  give  to  their  materials  for  soup. ) 
I  have  not  told  this  design  to  any  one  but  you,  and  I  mean  to 
go  about  it  as  quietly  as  I  can,  putting  off  the  more  heterodox 
aspect  of  things  until  I  have  gained,  if  I  can,  some  hold. 

There  are  a  great  many  other  things  that  might  be  done, 
e.g.  a  Commentary  on  the  New  Testament,  at  once  true  and 
practical.  This  should  be  the  joint  labour  of  many  persons. 
Also  tracts  of  another  sort  from  those  which  are  commonly 
circulated  among  the  poor. 

Any  religious  movement  should  be  also,  like  that  of  the 
Jesuits,  an  educational  movement.  And  this,  I  think,  is  to  a 
considerable  extent  going  on  at  the  schools ;  e.  g.  Harrow, 
Rugby,  Maryborough,  and  even  Winchester.  And  there  is 
a  great  change  in  education  at  the  Universities,  especially  at 
Oxford.  When  I  was  an  undergraduate  we  were  fed  upon 
Bishop  Butler  and  Aristotle's  Ethics,  and  almost  all  teaching 
leaned  to  the  support  of  doctrines  of  authority.  Now  there 
are  new  subjects,  Modern  History  and  Physical  Science,  and 
more  important  than  these,  perhaps,  is  the  real  study  of 
metaphysics  in  the  Literae  Humaniores  school — every  man  for 
the  last  ten  years  who  goes  in  for  honours  has  read  Bacon, 
and  probably  Locke,  Mill's  Logic,  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  the 
history  of  ancient  philosophy.  See  how  impossible  this  makes 
a  return  to  the  old  doctrines  of  authority. 


Letters,  1 865-1 8jo  413 

The  '  Hebrew  Conservative l '  has  just  found  this  out,  which 
he  ought  to  have  found  out  long  ago,  and  is  going  to  try  to 
upset  all  this  by  appointing  what  he  calls  a  Board  of  Studies, 
who  would  be  nominated  by  himself  and  his  friends.  But 
I  think  that  we  can  hinder  him,  as  the  Tutors  are  almost  all 
on  our  side. 

I  was  going  to  say  when  I  made  this  digression,  that  I  think 
something  needs  to  be  done  for  the  educated,  similar  to  what 
J.  Wesley  did  for  the  poor.  A  real  religious  movement  among 
the  educated  would  be  more  permanent  than  any  revival. 
What  is  wanted  just  now  is  not  preaching  for  the  poor,  but 
teaching  in  schools,  better  and  more  of  it,  and  preaching  to 
the  clergy  and  educated  classes. 

To  SIR  ALEXANDER  GRANT. 

August  27,  1865. 

I  have  been  working  at  Plato  steadily  for  the  last  two  months, 
and  make  some  impression,  although  the  work  is  veiy  long. 
I  believe  you  will  see  the  four  volumes  in  India  in  the  course 
of  next  year. 

I  have  been  reading  Grote  with  very  great  interest,  but 
with  a  good  deal  of  disagreement.  The  mode  of  handling 
critical  questions  is  very  defective :  his  arguments  about 
the  Canon  of  Plato  are  like  the  arguments  of  divines  about 
the  Canon  of  Scripture,  and  I  think  also  without  fancy 
that  there  is  far  more  in  Plato  than  he  supposes.  I  object 
to  a  kind  of  modern  rule  by  which  he  judges  him,  and  I 
don't  believe  Socrates  to  have  been  a  mere  professor  of 
negation,  as  he  supposes. 

I  hope  we  shall  live  to  see  more  of  one  another  before  life  is 
over.  Meanwhile  take  care  of  your  health,  save  your  money 
and  come  home  as  fast  as  you  can,  and  keep  the  notion  of 
collecting  materials  and  thoughts  for  some  work  in  view  which 
you  may  execute  when  you  come  home.  I  may  possibly  live 
twenty  or  twenty-five  years  longer,  and  I  can  assure  you  that 
I  mean  to  make  the  utmost  of  the  years  that  remain,  more  than 
I  have  done,  and  I  hope  you  will  do  the  same.  .  .  . 

1  Dr.  Pusey. 


414  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

This  is  really  written  in  Scotland,  Tummel  Bridge  Inn. 
Pitlochry,  which  has  been  the  best,  I  think,  of  my  summer 
residences. 

To  F.  T.  PALGEAVE. 

OXFORD,  September  26,  1865. 

I  most  entirely  agree  with  your  remark  about  the  [Cambridge  j 
Apostles.  We  must  try  and  avoid  that  at  Oxford.  To  teach 
men  how  they  may  learn  to  grow  independently  and  for  them- 
selves, is  perhaps  the  greatest  service  that  one  man  can  do  for 
another,  and  how  to  grow,  if  possible,  in  after  life.  I  hate  to 
meet  a  man  whom  I  have  known  ten  years  ago,  and  find  that 
he  is  at  precisely  the  same  point,  neither  moderated,  nor 
quickened,  nor  experienced,  but  simply  stiffened  ;  he  ought 
to  be  beaten.  He  had  the  ciiarm  of  youth  once  ;  now,  like 
many  a  pretty  girl,  he  has  the  plainness  of  middle  life. 

Is  it  too  late  to  alter  '  Sanatory '  ?  The  word  has  a  bad 
smell,  and  reminds  me  of  a  story  that  some  one  told  me  of 
Mr.  Chadwick's  children,  'playing  at  drains.'  Poor  innocents  ! 
'gracious,'  'ennobling,'  'elevating.'  ...  I  mean  to  make  the 
utmost  use  of  my  money  and  my  time  for  the  future,  and  I  am 
a  good  deal  strengthened  in  this  by  the  affection  that  you  and 
many  of  my  pupils  have  so  abundantly  shown  me — it  seems 
to  me  like  the  only  return  that  I  can  make.  And  perhaps 
my  free  way  of  life  is  as  go©d  for  this  purpose  as  any  position 
could  be. 

To  E.  B.  D.  MOEIER,  C.B. 

OXFOKD,  Januai-y  10,  1866. 
MY  DEAE  OLD  FELLOW, 

Let  me  tell  you  what  real  and  honest  pleasure  your 
success  gives  me.  You  have,  indeed,  accomplished  a  great 
work.  And  I  think  this  is  only  the  beginning  and  not 
the  end  *. 

I  am  sure  that  you  are  right  about  these  international 
questions  becoming  of  great  importance.  Europe  will  be 
much  more  one  nation  in  fifty  or  even  in  twenty-five  years 
(if  only  some  of  the  limbs  could  be  reset  by  L.  N. 2  or  any 

1  See  p.  436.  *  Louis  Napoleon. 


Letters,  1865-1870  415 

other  operator'.  The  force  of  the  international  commercial 
principle  will  be  much  greater  on  the  continent  than  in 
England,  because  there  is  no  insularity. 

I  should  like  to  see  two  rough  calculations  made  :  (i)  the 
present  cost  of  the  standing  armies  of  Europe,  (2)  the  loss 
(incalculable  really)  that  the  nations  of  Europe  incur  from 
Protection,  (i)  would  probably  be  much  above  100  millions 
sterling  per  annum  ;  (2)  would  probably  be  much  above  1000 
millions  sterling  per  annum.  Subtract  (i),  add  (2).  When 
we  think  of  these  things  and  think  of  the  evils  of  caste,  priest- 
hood, petty  princes,  oppressed  nationalities,  &c.,  does  not 
Europe  seem  to  be  at  the  beginning  and  not  at  the  end  of 
her  politics  ? 

I  am  fond  of  dreaming  of  a  millennium,  not  in  the  super- 
stitious sense,  but  of  one  which  we  may  make,  and  which 
you  may  help  to  make — when  you  have  reached  the  higher 
diplomatic  position  many  opportunities  will  occur. 

I  am  delighted  at  the  C.B.  I  never  thought  you  would  be 
the  '  fat  knight ';  that  is  the  only  thing  wanting  to  complete 
the  parallel. 

You  kindly  ask  me  to  write  to  you  about  myself,  but  that 
subject  will  soon  come  to  an  end.  For  I  have  had  no  adven- 
tures ;  only  carrying  on  pupils  and  the  everlasting  book  which 
has  now  got  into  four  or  perhaps  five  volumes,  including 
a  complete  translation  of  Plato,  I  keep  on  hand  also  notes 
for  sermons,  which  I  mean  to  work  up  when  Plato  is  finished  ; 
in  one  respect  I  am  glad  to  have  held  my  tongue  about 
Theology,  for  I  begin,  as  I  fancy,  to  see  my  way  clearer. 

Five  hundred  a  year  additional  is  certainly  a  great  comfort. 
Thou  wilt  come  to  me  yet  to  borrow  a  thousand  pounds — and 
thy  love,  Jack,  is  worth  a  thousand  pounds l. 

I  have  made  two  new  friends  during  the  last  year — one, 
Mr.  Browning,  whom  1  like  extremely ;  he  is  a  man  of  great 
genius  and  power  without  the  faults  of  genius— the  other, 
K.  Lowe,  whom  I  also  like  ;  he  is  a  very  honest  man  and  very 
clear  and  able  ;  it  is  only  in  politics  that  he  is  a  cynic,  for  in 
his  natural  character  he  is  a  kindly,  genial  man,  having  a  great 

1  Shakespeare,  2  Henry  IV,  i.  2. 


416  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

interest  in  Plato  and  the  classics,  which  is  a  bond  between  us. 
Also  he  has  administrative  imagination,  but  is  devoid  of  all 
power  of  political  construction  ;  his  measures  contradict  his 
own  first  principles. 

I  see  that  I  am  getting  to  gossip  with  you  as  we  used  to  do 
at  Berlin.  Are  you  coming  to  England  this  summer  ?  If  not, 
I  shall  certainly  go  to  Darmstadt ;  I  shall  like  making  friends 
with  your  little  girl,  being  always  a  lover  of  children,  who 
are  delightful  creatures.  .  .  . 

Will  you  give  my  kindest  regards  and  love  to  your  wife  and 
child  ?  Two  things  I  wonder  at  :  (i)  Why  you  retain  your  old 
undergraduate  affection  for  me.  (2)  Why  your  wife  is  not 
jealous.  I  can  only  wish  you  in  return  the  accomplishment 
of  some  really  great  work,  not  this  year  or  next,  but  as  the 
result  of  life.  That  is  a  reward  fitting  the  most  faithful  of 
friends. 

I  believe  that  your  wife  thinks  me  an  ambitious  dreamer 
who  suggests  impossibilities  to  you.  I  should  like  to  make 
all  my  old  pupils  ambitious,  if  I  could,  of  living  like  men  and 
doing  silently  a  real  work.  I  think  that  this  sort  of  idealism 
increases  upon  me  as  I  get  older.  But  I  should  be  more 
disposed  also  to  leave  the  way  and  manner  to  themselves, 
and  to  allow  for  differences  of  individual  character. 

To  

April  6,  1866. 

Surely  while  life  can  be  of  any  use  the  prayer  should  be 
not  only,  '  Thy  will  be  done,'  but,  '  Let  me  live  to  do  Thy  will, 
O  Lord/ 

Thank  you  for  wishing  me  a  long  life.  I  think  that  I  do 
desire  that,  sans  teeth,  sans  eyes,  sans  ears,  sans  everything, 
except  mind.  It  seems  to  me  that  I  have  made  so  many 
mjstakes,  and  started  so  late  in  life,  that  I  would,  if  I  can, 
still  have  my  life  before  me.  I  think  that  I  had  hardly  any 
idea  of  what  sort  of  a  place  the  world  was  until  about  fifteen 
years  ago.  I  see  the  same  fault  in  the  rising  generation  of 
young  men — they  ought  to  be  in  character  and  judgement 
at  twenty-three  where  they  don't  arrive  until  thirty-three. 
And  they  take  so  long  fermenting. 


Letters,  1865-1870  417 

To • 

[THE  DEANERY,  WESTMINSTER,]  June,  1866. 

I  shall  not  answer  your  letter,  but  I  shall  do  what  you  ask. 
Part  of  my  work  cannot  be  given  up  for  three  weeks  or 
a  month.  But  I  shall  reduce  the  Plato  to  about  one-half 
for  the  next  two  months,  and  that  will  leave  the  work  veiy 
light  during  the  first  part  of  the  vacation.  And  I  will  never 
work  after  twelve  for  the  future. 

I  am  quite  well  in  health,  but  I  am  aware  that  my 
mind  is  tired.  It  seems  wrong  to  give  up  any  man  who  is 
dependent  on  me,  and  it  seems  wrong  to  give  up  the  Plato. 
And  the  end  of  that  has  been  that  every  meal  is  utilized, 
and  every  hour  taken  up  in  seeing  the  men,  or  in  lecturing, 
or  both.  But  I  will  manage  better  another  Term. 

Lowe's  speech  l  was  one  of  the  most  able  speeches  ever  made 
against  all  reform  in  all  ages.  There  was  a  sort  of  philoso- 
phical appeal  to  history  and  experience,  which  in  the  House  of 
Commons  neither  Gladstone  nor  any  one  else  seems  able  to 
answer.  I  suspect  that  L.  has  supplied  a  good  many  political 
ideas  to  London  society  this  season. 

My  friends  here  talk  to  me  a  great  deal  about  Carlyle, 
whom  they  saw  in  the  winter.  I  can't  say  that  I  altogether 
like  him  :  a  man  of  genius,  and  in  some  respects  the  first  man 
living,  an  independent  man,  a  tender-hearted  man — the  most 
graphic  of  all  painters,  though  in  an  irregular,  magic-lantern  way. 
Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  a  man  totally  regardless  of  truth, 
totally  without  admiration  of  any  active  goodness — a  self- 
contradictory  man,  who  investigates  facts  with  the  most 
extraordinary  care  in  order  to  prove  his  own  preconceived 
notions.  He  has  stirred  up  the  minds  of  young  men  (those 
impressionable  beings),  but  not  really  elevated  them.  I  know 
that  he  can  say  things  with  a  tenderness  and  power  in  con- 
versation that  no  one  else  attains.  But  this  does  not  atone 
at  all  to  me  for  his  utter  recklessness  and  his  habit  of  ex- 
pressing his  own  personal  fancies  in  the  likeness  of  intellectual 
truths.  If  I  were  engaged  in  any  work  more  than  usually 

1  On  the  Reform  Bill  of  1866. 
VOL.    I.  EG 


418  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

good  (which  I  never  shall  be),  I  know  that  he  would  be  the 
first  person  to  utter  a  powerful  sneer,  and  if  I  were  seeking 
to  know  the  truth,  he  would  ridicule  the  very  notion  of 
an  '  homunculus '  discovering  the  truth.  I  don't  think  that 
he  has  any  real  insight,  but  only  a  great  power  of  painting 
and  embossing  and  crystallizing  scenes  real  or  imaginary. 
Nor  is  he  a  great  doer,  nor  even  a  great  artist. 

The  spirit  of  the  twenty-third  Psalm  and  the  spirit  of  the 
ninetieth  Psalm  should  be  united  in  our  lives. 


To 

August  12,  1866. 

I  don't  think  that  the  war1  was  right,  or  the  coup  d'etat 
right,  or  that  Germany  may  not  very  likely  become  an  odious 
military  aristocracy.  But  I  think  that  we  must  accept  fails 
accomplis,  or  in  politics  we  become  hopeless  and  isolated,  anti- 
pathetic to  all  things,  sympathetic  with  nothing.  This  is  a 
state  of  great  weakness,  when  all  our  ideas  are  dominated  by 
antagonism  to  L.  N.  The  L.  N.  regime  has  fallen  very  hard 
on  the  press  and  literary  men  ;  it  was  bad  in  its  beginning  and 
is  immoral  in  its  private  ways.  Still  it  has  some  elements 
of  real  greatness  which  are  wanting  in  other  Governments  of 
Europe. 

I  am  really  taking  care  of  my  health,  for  I  never  work  more 
than  six  hours  a  day,  and  before  going  back  to  Oxford  I  mean 
to  have  an  entire  rest.  You  see  that  I  am  obliged  to  go 
through  this  long  mechanical  labour  of  translating  Plato, 
about  2100  pages  ;  this  will  be  finished  next  March.  Then 
I  have  about  half-finished  a  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  Early 
Greek  Philosophy,  and  of  Plato.  I  fancy  this  to  be  important 
because  the  history  of  Greek  ideas  is  the  history  of  the  ideas 
of  the  civilized  world,  and  to  most  persons  the  very  notion 
that  ideas  have  a  history  is  a  new  one.  I  want  to  throw 
my  whole  mind  into  this  when  the  translation  is  done.  Then 
I  have  also  an  edition  of  the  Republic  with  notes,  which 
is  likely  to  be  used  by  students  in  the  Schools,  in  which  I  try 

1  The  '  Seven  Weeks'  War '  between  Prussia  and  Austria. 


Letters,  1865-1870  419 

to  give,  in  a  condensed  form,  modern  views  of  the  questions 
treated  of,  as  well  as  explanations  of  the  Greek.  So  that,  you 
see,  I  have  my  hands  full,  and  am  not  idle,  though  people 
naturally  think  I  am  gone  to  sleep  or  am  dead. 

(I  told  my  mother  to  send  you  one  of  my  sermons.  The 
other l  is,  I  fear,  still  in  the  pocket  of  Dr.  Stanley's  cassock. 
The  sermon  on  Prayer  has  too  much  negation  and  too  little 
positive.  A  lady  told  me  that  it  would  be  a  good  excuse  to 
my  pupils  for  not  going  to  church.) 

To  PROFESSOR  LEWIS  CAMPBELL. 

TUMMEL  BRIDGE,  PITLOCHRY,  N.B.,  [1866]. 

I  am  at  one  of  my  old  haunts  with  Lord  Donoughmore  and 
E.  Myers,  who  is  good  enough  to  be  his  tutor,  preparing 
the  Republic  for  the  press ;  also  some  Divinity  lectures  for 
next  Term.  I  shall  hope  to  come  to  St.  Andrews  about 
September  8  for  a  month,  and  then,  as  iron  sharpeneth  iron, 
I  shall  be  sharpened  by  you.  At  present  I  am  going  on  in 
a  very  plodding,  mechanical  manner. 

To  PROFESSOR  JOHN  NICHOL. 

[1866.] 

I  imagine  that  when  this  reaches  you  the  matter  of  the 
Professorship  will  have  been  settled.  .  .  .  But  I  cannot  help 
writing  to  assure  you  that  nothing  which  happens  to  you  is 
indifferent  to  me.  I  think  that  I  would  do  anything  to  promote 
your  interests,  and  you  must  promote  them  yourself.  You  and 
I  are  in  the  same  difficulty  ;  we  can  look  for  no  external  help, 
but  must  fashion  our  lives  for  ourselves,  and  that  ought  to  unite 
us  :  if  opportunities  don't  come,  we  must  look  at  life  calmly  and 
make  them ;  it  is  no  use  complaining  of  having  public  opinion 
against  us.  We  have  challenged  that,  although  perhaps  un- 
designedly,  and  now  we  must  fight  it  out  and  make  a  place  for 
ourselves.  You  know  as  well  as  I  do  that  to  have  written 
a  good  book  is  worth  a  great  deal  more  both  in  real  useful- 

1  i.e.  the  first  which  he  preached  at  Westminster. 
E  e  2 


420  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

ness  and  distinction  than  to  have  gained  many  professorships. 
...  I  hope  that  you  will  contrive  to  do  something  in  the  way 
of  writing  this  vacation.  Don't  fall  into  the  mistake  that 
I  have  made  during  the  last  ten  years,  of  being  too  much  of 
a  drudge,  and  getting  nothing  done.  '  Mais  nous  changerons 
tout  celaV 

To  HENEY  H.  LANCASTER. 

October  18,  1866. 

Whately  was  a  very  narrow,  clear  intellect — logical,  shallow, 
with  a  genius  for  illustration — very  conceited  and  egotistical, 
but  also  very  noble  and  disinterested,  quite  princely  in  his  use 
of  money,  and  utterly  careless  of  popular  favour.  He  was 
certainly  a  man  of  great  force  of  character — in  a  narrow  sense 
a  great  man  ;  much  more  distinguished  than  any  other  Bishop 
and  much  more  honest.  Considering  the  pranks  he  played  as 
Archbishop,  putting  his  head  under  water  at  a  dinner-party, 
crowing  like  a  cock  to  the  clergy,  sitting  swinging  on  a  chain 
in  College  Green  while  his  house  was  building,  throwing  a 
boomerang  on  Sunday,  &c.,  he  must  have  been  a  very  remark- 
able man  to  be  respected  at  all,  for  he  trampled  underfoot  all 
respectabilities  and  conventionality.  He  was  narrow  and  bigoted 
in  theology — v.  his  charges. 


ALDERLEY  EDGE,  January  i,  1867. 

I  must  tell  you  again  and  again  not  to  despair — to  keep  some 
sort  of  life  and  light  in  your  mind,  and  not  to  lose  sight  of  the 
consolations  of  the  future.  Most  persons  of  deep  feeling  have 
alternations  of  light  and  dark,  and  we  should  let  the  sun  shine 
sometimes.  Even  in  London  it  does  this. 

January,  1867. 

What  do  you  think  that  I  am  doing  ?  Nothing.  For  during 
the  last  week  I  felt  an  extreme  idleness  and  stupidity,  and 
satisfied  myself  with  the  sophistical  theory  that  you  suggested 
to  me,  that  the  brain  needed  to  go  to  sleep,  and  put  off  beginning 

1  This  letter  lias  been  quoted  in  Knight's  Life  of  Nichol. 


Letters,  1865-1870  421 

again  till  January  15,  and  feel  as  unwilling  to  work  as  any 
negro. 

Now  I  am  putting  your  doctrines  into  practice,  you  must 
occasionally  enforce  them  by  your  own  example,  or  I  shall 
relapse.  I  am  changing  my  views  of  life  and  begin  to  think 
that  rest  and  recreation  are  really  required  if  I  am  to  last  for 
twenty  years  longer.  And  I  mean  to  get  younger  as  I  get 
older,  even  sans  hair,  sans  teeth,  and,  what  is  worse,  sans 
memory,  and  sans  everything.  And  I  am  hoping  that  ten 
years  hence,  according  to  your  advice,  I  shall  succeed  in 
making  myself  disagreeable  to  somebody.  Will  you  adopt  my 
view?  .  .  . 

The  worst  of  planning  anything  for  Gorgias  is  that  the 
execution,  even  if  he  could  be  got  to  take  it  up,  requires  not 
more  ability,  but  more  policy,  more  reticence  and  management 
of  mankind,  than  he  seems  to  be  capable  of.  He  is  the  quickest, 
the  clearest,  the  ablest,  and  one  of  the  most  public-spirited  men 
(really)  whom  I  have  ever  known,  but  he  wants  to  do  every- 
thing by  force.  He  is  the  only  man  that  I  see  who  would 
fearlessly  attempt  great  administrative  reforms.  But  when 
he  came  to  have  a  whole  profession,  the  Army,  Church,  arrayed 
against  him.  and  he  came  to  be  deserted  by  his  colleagues,  he 
would  be  likely  to  sink  under  the  load  of  unpopularity. 

I  trust  that  you  never  allow  yourself  to  doubt  that  you  can 
still  complete  your  life  (lives,  like  pictures,  lose  more  than 
half  their  value  by  being  unfinished),  and  that  in  the  greatest 
suffering  you  are  in  the  hands  of  God,  who  has  thus  far  made 
you  His  instrument. 

To  DB.  GKEENHILL,  AT  HASTINGS. 

BALLIOL  COLLEGE,  April  3,  [1867]. 
MY  DEAR  GBEENHILL, 

It  may  be,  as  you  say,  that  in  what  remains  of  life  we 
shall  not  see  much  of  one  another.  For  our  work  has  to  be 
done  in  different  places,  and  probably  we  have  got  to  look 
at  many  things  in  very  different  ways.  But  I  shall  always 
remember  with  pleasure  and  gratitude  that  old  kindness  of 
thirty  years  ago.  I  have  since  found  the  blessing  and  the  good 


422  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

of  giving  away  money  to  others,  and  I  think  that  you  first 
showed  me  the  way  to  do  this. 

I  cannot  say  that  I  shall  pray  for  your  boy  at  his  confirmation 
(though  he  has  my  best  wishes).  But,  if  he  comes  to  Oxford, 
I  will  try  to  help  him  as  far  as  I  can,  in  his  College  course,  for 
your  sake. 

With  very  kind  regards  to  Mrs.  Greenhill, 

Believe  me,  yours  truly  and  affectionately, 

B.  JOWETT. 

To  

OXFORD,  May  31,  1867. 

I  want  you  to  admit  the  possibility  of  better  and  happier 
days  coming ;  and  I  believe  that  they  will  come,  not  exactly 
in  the  sense  which  youthful  holiday-making,  love-making 
follies  expect  them,  but  days  in  which  you  will  see  your  work 
more  fully  carried  out,  and  bless  God  for  the  retrospect 
of  the  past  with  all  its  great  trials. 

What  do  you  think  that  I  have  been  doing  during  the  last 
month?  Translating  the  Politics  of  Aristotle.  You  will  say 
that  I  am  mad  about  translating.  But  I  am  not.  It  was 
necessary  to  read  the  book  carefully  for  my  work  upon  Plato, 
and  the  translation  is  much  wanted,  and  is  now  half  finished. 

To  

OXFORD,  June,  1867. 

At  what  a  rate  the  chariot  of  democracy  is  driving !  It 
almost  takes  away  one's  breath.  Last  week  the  democratic 
movement  might  have  been  stopped,  the  Ministiy  driven 
from  office,  and  a  Bill  something  like  that  of  last  session 
introduced.  But  all  that  is  now  impossible.  Household 
suffrage,  lodger  franchise,  one  year's  residence,  are  fairly 
given  and  cannot  be  withheld.  And  if  the  Conservatives 
are,  as  appears,  really  willing  to  give  up  principles  which 
they  held  sacred  a  month  ago,  the  Bill  is  certain  to  pass. 
For  their  opponents  cannot,  if  they  would,  oppose  them, 
and  the  Lords  dare  not. 

Think   of   the  effects  on  the  Church  of  England  (that  of 


Letters,  1865-1870  423 

Ireland  is  gone  anyhow)  and  on  the  whole  country.  Then 
of  the  exultation  of  the  Jew,  who  has  revenged  all  his 
personal  wrongs,  triumphed  over  the  virtue  of  Gladstone, 
made  himself  an  historical  name,  and  really  done  a  great 
service  (not  taking  into  account  the  means).  He  has  got 
his  pound  of  flesh  out  of  these  Tory  magnates,  who  have 
scoffed  at  him.  People  have  often  said  that  he  would  be 
the  leader  of  the  Kadicals,  but  they  never  guessed  that  he 
would  accomplish  it  by  making  the  Tories  Radicals.  There 
is  something  that  is  not  quite  intelligible  in  his  colleagues 
neither  actively  supporting  nor  opposing  him.  Think  of  all 
this  also  in  connexion  with  the  Conservative  reaction  of  six 
years  ago.  .  .  . 

That  you  may  not  think  me  mad  in  translating  the  Politics, 
I  transcribe  a  short  passage  for  you. 

'  Now  we  ought  to  be  careful  of  the  health  of  the  inhabitants  ; 
and  this  will  depend,  first,  on  the  situation  and  aspect  of  the 
place  ;  secondly,  on  the  use  of  good  water,  the  care  of  which 
ought  to  be  made  a  first  object.  For  those  things  which  we 
use  most  and  oftenest  have  the  greatest  influence  on  health ; 
and  water  and  air  are  of  this  nature,'  &c.  — Ar.  Pol.  vii.  2.  4. 

And  I  could  find  similar  passages  in  Plato's  Laws. 

To  

OXFORD,  June,  1867. 

When  you  think  that  you  have  done  nothing,  that  may 
be  in  some  degree  true,  as  a  fact,  amid  the  difficulties  and 
hindrances  of  human  things.  But  is  not  the  greater  part 
a  certain  state  of  nerves  or  a  certain  attitude  of  character, 
like  the  way  which  good  people  have  of  declaring  that  they 
are  miserable  sinners  ? 

I  like  to  hear  my  friend  Mr.  Browning  say,  'I  have  just 
finished  a  poem  (I  am  ashamed  to  tell  you  the  length — about 
20,000  lines) :  I  am  sure  that  it  is  by  far  the  best  thing 
which  I  have  yet  done,  and  when  I  have  done  that  I  shall 
try  to  do  something  better  still,  and  so  on  as  long  as  I 
live.'  And  I  like  to  think  of  myself  as  beginning  and  not 
ending. 


424  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett         [CHAP,  xn 

My  boy ',  who  is  extremely  clever,  has  been  reading 
St.  Theresa's  life  in  the  English.  '  Don't  you  think,  sir, 
that  she  was  religiously  mad  ? '  '  Well,  not  a  very  bad  kind 
of  madness.'  'Are  not  all  persons  mad  who  take  sincerely 
to  a  monastic  life  ? '  He  is  only  fourteen,  and  he  seems  to 
me  to  be  always  reading  and  thinking  about  what  he  reads. 


To  

OXFORD,  July  18,  1867. 

I  went  before  the  Committee 2  on  Monday,  and  was  examined 
for  an  hour,  and  then  cross-examined  for  more  than  three  hours 
on  Tuesday.  Lowe,  who  was  present,  was  quite  satisfied,  and 
very  much  pleased,  but  I  don't  trust  his  judgement  of  my 
performance,  because  he  is  partial  to  me.  (And  yet  how  often 
in  the  last  four  years  have  I  been  encouraged  by  good  words, 
which  I  did  not  believe  notwithstanding?)  To  return  to  our 
Committee,  I  really  believe  that  we  shall  succeed  in  getting 
free  Education  at  Oxford  independent  of  the  Colleges,  which 
will  make  an  enormous  difference.  You  have  no  idea  how 
much  greater  liberality  there  is  at  Oxford  than  at  Cambridge 
about  University  matters.  I  read  the  Cambridge  evidence ;  it 
was  quite  miserable  to  see  the  adhesion,  even  of  liberal  men 
among  them,  to  the  old  routine. 

I  sometimes  think  that  the  work  of  Christ  lasted  only  three 
years,  and  we  have  (probably)  five,  six,  and  seven  times  three 
years  to  live — though  I  remember  that  you  object  to  having 
life  parcelled  out  to  you  twenty  years  at  a  time.  But  why  not 
look  at  this  another  way  ?  God  has  given  you  a  work  to  do, 
of  which  about  one-third  or  about  one-half  is  completed  :  why 
should  you  not  look  forward  to  saying  'It  is  finished'?  If 
there  have  been  mistakes,  let  us  watch  and  observe  them  for 
the  future,  and  let  us  try  to  get  the  intensity  without  the 
drawbacks.  If  we  don't,  are  we  not  as  stupid  as  the  people 
who  refuse  to  clear  out  drains,  which  as  you,  and  I  who  have 
been  taught  by  you,  know  is  the  lowest  depth  of  human 
stupidity  ? 

1  Matthew  Knight.  2  See  p.  379. 


Letters,  1865-1870  425 

To  MRS.  TENNYSON. 

July  29,  1867. 

I  daresay  that  you  have  received  a  book  of  Persian  poems 
(Omar  Khayyam)  with  a  French  translation.  When  Alfred 
has  read  them,  will  you  send  them  to  Mr.  Fitzgerald  ?  I  heard 
that  they  were  being  published  under  the  superintendence 
of  M.  Jules  Mohl,  and  begged  a  copy  of  them  for  him,  as  he 
certainly  has  a  right  to  the  first  copy  which  arrives  in  England. 
I  hope  that  he  will  be  stimulated  to  make  some  more  of  his 
admirable  translations. 

M.  Mohl  is  only  responsible  for  the  printing  of  the  Persian. 
He  disapproves  of  the  translation  and  the  notes,  which,  he  says, 
are  written  under  a  'pernicious  Sufi  influence.'  I  am  on  my 
way  to  Scotland,  where  I  hope  to  be  settled  in  a  day  or  two  at 
the  old  work.  However,  I  feel  that  I  am  printing,  which  is 
the  beginning  of  the  end. 

The  party  was  very  pleasant.  Mr.  Browning  was  very  sorry 
to  miss  you  and  Alfred.  I  shan't  give  up  all  hope  of  seeing 
you  next  year. 

Will  you  do  me  a  little  favour  ?  There  is  an  old  lady  whose 
courage  and  clear-headedness  have  done  (or  rather  may  have 
done)  me  a  very  considerable  service.  She  is  very  desirous 
of  having  Alfred's  autograph.  Will  you  send  me,  without 
troubling  him,  a  few  lines  ?  I  hope  Hallam  is  well.  Tell  him 
to  write  to  me  :  I  always  like  to  hear  from  the  boys.  .  .  . 

I  am  very  glad  to  hear  of  your  Surrey  purchase. 

To  PROFESSOR  LEWIS  CAMPBELL. 

STRATHPEFFEK,  KB.  DINGWALL, 

August  3,  [1867]. 

I  made  acquaintance  with  '  Ecce  Homo  '  the  other  day. 
He  is  a  very  modest,  good  sort  of  man.  His  book  has  the 
advantage  of  considering  the  subject  in  some  way,  whereas 
most  persons  are  contented  with  words  and  formulas.  But 
it  is  wholly  uncritical  in  not  examining  the  documents — and 
unspiritual  in  regarding  Christ  as  the  founder  of  a  Church 
rather  than  as  a  sacred  individual — and  unphilosophical  in 


426  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

imagining  that   moral  defects  are  reached  by   the  Church  in 
the  same  way  that  legal  offences  are  reached  by  the  law. 

I  should  have  liked  very  much  to  have  seen  and  talked 
with  Eothe  l,  who  is  an  excellent  man.  In  criticism  all  the 
German  divines  seem  to  me  unsatisfactory,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Tubingen  (barring  some  degree  of  fancifulness  and 
hypercriticism  in  them),  and  in  a  religious  point  of  view  these 
are  unsatisfactory  too. 

To  


STRATHPEFFER,  DINGWALL, 

August  4,  1867. 

I  read  St.  Theresa  yesterday  (the  book  which  the  boy2 
says  that  I  am  always  reading).  I  know  that  the  visions 
are  all  imaginations.  Still  the  book  has  a  great  interest  for 
me.  I  think  that  this  is  in  some  degree  due  to  the  style, 
for  as  a  literary  work  it  has  very  great  merit :  but  much 
more  the  attraction  is  the  intensity  of  feeling,  so  far  beyond 
anything  that  is  now  to  be  found  in  the  world.  Some  day 
I  should  like  to  draw  out  at  length  in  a  sermon  how  feeling 
and  intellect  ought  to  be  combined.  The  secret  seems  to  be 
lost  in  modern  times. 

To  THE  MAEQUIS  OF  LANSDOWNE. 

ST.  ANDREWS,  September  14,  1867. 

I  think  that  you  deserve  your  holiday  after  eight  weeks' 
work.  Still  I  hope  that  you  will  not  give  up  the  resolution 
of  finishing  the  Ethics  before  you  return  to  Oxford.  One 
owes  it  to  oneself  as  a  matter  of  honour  and  conscience  to 
carry  out  resolutions.  I  am  always  sensible  when  I  say  these 
sort  of  things  to  you  that  if  I  had  been  placed  in  your 
circumstances  in  early  life  I  should  never  have  read  at  all. 
The  great  importance  of  the  matter  makes  me  dwell  on  these 
'  personal '  subjects. 

The  object  of  reading  for  the  Schools  is  not  chiefly  to  attain 

1  Author  of  the  Theologische  Ethik.  I  had  seen  him  at  Heidel- 
berg.—L.  C.  2  Matthew  Knight. 


Letters,  i86$-i8jo  427 

a  First  Class,  but  to  elevate  and  strengthen  the  character  for  life. 
If  you  ask  how  this  is  to  be  effected,  I  would  say  the  means 
was,  first,  hard  work  ;  secondly,  a  real  regard  for  the  truth,  and 
independence  of  mind  and  opinion  ;  thirdly,  a  consciousness 
that  we  are  put  here  in  different  positions  of  life  to  carry  out 
the  will  of  God,  although  this  is  rather  to  be  felt  than  expressed 
in  words.  I  think  you  would  find  an  advantage  also  in  getting 
more  hold  on  politics  and  literature,  and  getting  to  know  all 
manner  of  persons  who  are  worthy  of  being  known. 

To  E.  B.  D.  MOEIEE,  C.B. 

[1867.] 
MY  DEAR  SIR  JOHN  , 

I  was  just  thinking  of  sending  another  letter  in  search  of 
the  last,  when  your  first  letter  came.  I  rejoice  at  your  victory 
over  the  man  in  buckram,  but  I  am  sorry  to  hear  that,  like  your 
great  namesake,  you  are  still  troubled  with  the  gout.  .  .  . 

How  is  it,  my  dear  Sir  John,  that  you  make  so  many 
enemies  ?  I  have  quoted  the  place  to  you  before,  but  I  must 
quote  it  again,  because  it  contains  such  excellent  advice  :  '  Use 
them  well,  Davy,  use  them  well '  (that  is  to  say,  all  the  genteel 
rogues,  sneaks,  and  men  in  buckram  that  you  come  across), 
'for  they  are  arrant  knaves  and  will  backbite.'  Also,  as  I  am 
taking  upon  me  to  give  advice  to  a  great  diplomatist,  hear 
another  wise  saying :  'I  forgave  him,  not  from  any  magnanimity 
of  soul  and  still  less  from  Christian  charity,  but  simply  because 
it  was  convenient  to  me.'  The  moral  of  which  is  that  you  should 

make  friends  with  the  Eight  Honourable  H at  the  earliest 

opportunity.  If  you  '  imitate  the  honourable  Romans, '  I  com- 
mend to  you  as  a  diplomatist  the  example  of  that  great  Ancient 
(not  that  I  believe  he  ever  lived)  to  whom  it  was  only  necessary 
to  do  an  injury  in  order  to  make  him  your  friend. 

I  am  getting  on  well  with  my  Oxford  plans.  By  the  dog 
of  Egypt — if  I  may  be  allowed  to  swear  after  the  manner  of 
Socrates — it  is  not  difficult  to  manage  a  College  when  you  have 
a  large  majority.  Formerly  all  my  schemes  used  to  fail,  but 
now  they  succeed. 

1  See  pp.  409,  436. 


428  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

To  ALFRED  TENNYSON. 

March  8,  1868. 
MY  DEAR  TENNYSON, 

Will  you  look  at  the  enclosed  letter  which,  though  long,  is 
not  unamusing,  and  will  you  see  whether  you  can  write  a  few 
lines  addressed  to  Sellar  or  Professor  Fraser  (who  is  an  ex- 
cellent man)  which  might  be  of  service  ?  I  would  not  ask  you 
to  do  such  a  thing  for  any  one  but  Grant,  and  there  is  no  reason 
why  you  should  do  it  at  all  if  you  think  that  you  can't  or 
would  rather  not,  as  I  have  not  spoken  to  them.  But  I  am 
sure  that  a  '  pithy '  word  from  you  would  have  effect,  and  if 
you  don't  mind  it  had  better  be  addressed  to  Professor  Fraser, 
as  he  is  not  supposed  to  be  a  friend  of  Grant's  l. 

I  hope  that  you  are  well  and  have  '  thoughts  which  voluntary 
move  harmonious  numbers  ' :  I  heard  of  you  in  London,  where 
you  were  reported  to  be  looking  '  quite  youthful. ' 

Don't  write  any  more  in  Magazines  if  you  can  help  :  indeed 
it  is  a  good-natured  mistake  and  will  do  you  harm.  The 
Magazine-writers  say,  '  Art  thou  become  as  one  of  us  ? '  &c. 

With  most  kind  regards  to  Mrs.  Tennyson  and  the  boys, 

Believe  me,  dear  Tennyson, 
Ever  yours, 

B.  JOWETT. 

To  

December  16,  1868. 

My  voluntary  Divinity  lectures  have  come  to  an  end  : 
I  think  prosperously,  judging  by  the  examination.  I  must 
invent  some  more  general  subjects  for  next  Term.  I  think 
that  I  shall  endeavour  to  preach  once  a  month  as  long  as  I  live. 
.  .  .  There  is  nothing  I  believe  in  less  than  the  effect  of  a 
great  deal  of  routine  or  mechanical  work. 

To  

December  28,  1868. 

I  have  been  looking  through  Janet's  book  on  Materialism  ; 
interesting  but  not  very  good,  and  written  with  a  party  spirit 

1  Sir  Alexander  Grant  was  standing  for  the  Principalship  of  Edin- 
burgh University  against  Sir  James  Simpson. 


Letters,  1865-1870  429 

against  Materialists.  I  think  that  a  philosopher  may  very  well 
ask  himself  whether  he  is  writing  for  his  own  generation  or 
for  the  ages  to  come.  All  natter  themselves  that  they  are 
doing  the  last  when  they  are  really  doing  the  first ;  and  the 
beginning  of  philosophy  is  to  be  aware  of  the  illusion.  As 
Hegel,  Kant,  Sir  W.  Hamilton,  Cousin  have  passed  away,  so 
also  Comte  and  Mill  will  pass  away.  And  what  next  ?  Any- 
thing that  is  to  be  permanent  must  recognize  all  facts  and  all 
our  highest  moral  ideas,  and  leave  no  sort  of  knowledge  outside 
which  may  undermine  the  fabric.  And  it  must  begin  again, 
like  Bacon,  by  purging  away  indirect  notions,  such  as  matter 
and  mind,  cause  and  effect,  which  to  many  seem  to  be  the 
foundation  of  the  faith.  And  it  must  avoid  sentiment  and 
sentimentalism,  and  must  be  aware  how  all  classes,  poets, 
prophets,  metaphysicians,  physicists,  have  their  narrow  and 
limiting  points  of  view. 

To  - 

January  17,  1869. 

All  persons'  thoughts  seem  to  be  turning  towards  the  poor 
of  London,  and  your  thoughts  should  be  in  that  direction  too. 
The  question  is  :  How  is  this  perpetual  flocking  into  the  towns 
and  accumulation  of  masses  of  pauperism  there  to  be  prevented  ? 
Is  it  practicable  to  say  that  food  shall  under  no  circumstances 
be  given  without  a  previous  labour  test  ?  First,  the  Poor  Law 
requires  to  be  recognized  in  London ;  secondly,  all  private 
charity  must  be  required  to  conform  to  certain  regulations. 
I  do  not  see  why  there  should  not  be  a  rate  in  aid,  say,  over 
the  whole  of  London,  when  the  poor's  rate  is  less  than  25.  in 
the  pound:  (i)  for  Education,  (2)  Emigration,  (3)  Sanatory 
Improvements. 

I  am  appointed  College  Preacher.  I  begin  my  preaching  on 
Sunday,  January  31.  I  see  that  I  have  undertaken  a  difficult 
enterprise,  and  if  I  do  not  succeed  greatly,  I  shall  fail  greatly. 
What  shall  I  begin  preaching  about  ?  '  The  Truth  makes  free, ' 
or  'The  Nature  of  God,' or  'In  understanding  be  ye  men'? 
I  want  to  keep  before  myself  that  the  work  which  I  have  to  do 
in  Oxford,  both  in  the  way  of  religion  and  education,  is  much 


430  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

greater  than  it  has  been  hitherto,  now  I  have  got  a  standing 
ground  in  the  College.  The  preliminaries  are  all  well  enough 
now,  but  a  long  time  has  been  taken  in  attaining  them.  And 
I  do  not  know  whether  life  or  power  remains  for  all  that 
I  have  to  do.  Where  I  am  now  I  ought  to  have  been  ten 
years  ago. 

To  

January  31,  1869. 

I  send  you  my  sermon  written  (rather  hastily)  but  never 
preached,  through  a  ridiculous  contretemps.  The  Catechetical 
Lecturer l  had  forgotten  that  I  was  to  preach  on  the  last  Sunday 
in  every  month,  and  started  to  his  legs  before  I  could  stop  him. 
As  the  sermon  is  rather  patchy  and  ill  expressed  I  am  not  very 
sorry.  The  fault  of  all  my  sermons  is  that  they  have  many 
crude  ideas  and  jump  from  one  to  another,  instead  of  a  single 
one  well  developed.  I  wish  that  I  had  more  time. 

I  tried  the  subject  which  you  suggested,  but  got  into  a  muddle 
about  it  and  gave  it  up.  I  seem  to  have  so  little  to  say  about 
this  when  I  have  once  said  that  God  works  by  fixed  laws  and 
that  we  have  the  power  of  co-operating  with  them. 

I  think  that  biographical  sermons  would  be  good,  reading 
the  lesson  of  individual  lives.  This  is  suited  to  mixed  con- 
gregations and  is  new :  Wesley,  St.  Bernard,  &c. 

I  have  been  reading  some  of  Newman's  sermons  over  again. 
I  am  rather  surprised  at  their  great  reputation.  For  they  are 
not  really  good,  except  here  and  there,  as  literary  works. 
I  think  that  South's  are  the  best  sermons  in  English.  In 
general  the  Puritan  divines  have  a  great  deal  more  life  in  them 
than  the  Anglican.  Kobertson  is  far  better  than  Newman. 

To  

March  16,  1869. 

Now  the  hour  of  midnight  is  striking,  so,  in  accordance  with 
our  compact  (having  read  Polybius),  I  will  leave  off.  And 
some  day  I  will  make  another  compact  with  you,  not  to  speak 

1  Edwin  Palmer.  Jowett  had  a  habit  of  making  a  long  pause 
before  rising  to  preach. 


Letters,  1865-1 870  431 

evil  of  any  one,  which  I  am  always  doing,  and  which  I  always 
feel  to  be  a  great  weakness,  and  can  often  trace  in  myself  to 
a  personal  motive.  I  think  it  is  well  to  know  people  as  they 
really  are,  but  that  it  would  be  nobler  and  better  to  hold  one's 
tongue  about  them. 

I  was  glad  to  see  Mr.  Mundella  exhorting  the  trades  unions 
to  take  up  education.  I  am  inclined  strongly  to  think  that 
the  spirit  of  education  and  improvement  of  the  dwellings  of  the 
poor  may  come  from  some  inspiration  of  their  own. 

To  

Mary  19,  1869. 

I  don't  mind  real  prophetic  denunciations  of  bad  people, 
and  I  wish  to  keep  my  head  clear  about  political  people  and 
their  motives.  But  I  think  if  you  ever  mean  to  act  in  the 
world  you  should  exercise  great  reticence  in  speaking  of  them. 

This  is  my  theory,  but  has  not  been  my  practice  hitherto. 

I  think  that  things  are  said  against  people  chiefly  from  a  want 
of  self-control.  And  when  you  come  to  act  with  them  or  talk 
with  them,  your  influence  over  them  seems  to  be  taken  away 
by  the  consciousness  that  you  have  not  always  spoken  well 
of  them  (perhaps  deservedly).  I  think  that  the  world  requires 
infinitely  more  courage  and  infinitely  more  caution  than  it 
possesses  at  present. 

I  had  a  very  nice  party  here  on  Saturday. 

To  

May  28,  1869. 

We  have  three  compacts :  First,  that  you  are  to  give  an 
hour  a  day  to  writing  or  some  unprofessional  occupation  (and 
not  to  overwork),  in  return  for  which  I  will  observe  hours 
and  days.  All  this  is  to  be  strictly  observed.  Secondly,  we 
have  a  minor  compact,  not  to  be  observed  so  strictly,  not  to 
speak  evil  of  others — even  against  Simon  Magus  not  to  '  bring 
a  railing  accusation ';  this,  however,  may  be  occasionally  broken 
when  human  nature  can  endure  no  longer.  N.B. — It  does  not 
rest  on  any  religious  ground,  but  merely  on  expediency. — Thirdly, 
we  will  have  a  great  compact  that  every  year  is  to  be  calmer, 


432  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

happier,  and  more  efficient  and  productive  of  results  than  the 
one  which  has  preceded. 

I  lecture  on  Political  Economy.  I  really  knew  the  old 
Political  Economy,  but  I  have  to  invent  the  new,  which  is  not 
a  satisfactory  process. 

To   

June  28,  1869. 

Please  not  to  suppose  that  I  am  thinking  about  the  Master- 
ship when  I  said  that  I  ought  to  have  been  where  I  am  ten 
years  ago1.  That  used  to  trouble  me  in  days  before  I  knew 
you,  and  when  I  was  uncertain  of  the  future  of  the  College. 
But  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  I  ought  not  to  have  spent 
so  much  time  in  lecturing  and  so  little  in  writing.  To  lecture 
is  a  great  strain  and  the  effect  is  comparatively  slight.  How- 
ever, if  the  mistake  has  been  made,  I  shall  not  continue  to 
make  it.  I  intend  not  to  give  more  than  four  lectures  a  week 
after  this  Term. 

To  MBS.  JOWETT. 

July  4,  1869. 

I  was  intending  to  come  and  see  you  this  week.  But 
I  found  that  I  must  stay  at  Oxford  and  get  a  portion  of  Plato 
completed.  The  first  volume,  pp.  620,  is  now  completed.  There 
will  be  five  or  six  of  them. 

I  think  the  sermons2  have  been  fairly  successful.  I  will 
send  you  one  or  two  of  them  when  I  get  them  back,  as  I  have 
lent  them. 

On  Saturday  I  go  to  Mr.  Nightingale's  at  Lea  Hurst,  when 
I  hope  to  meet  Miss  Nightingale,  who  has  not  been  there  for 
nine  or  ten  years.  (Did  you  see  her  paper  in  Good  Words  called 
'  Una  and  the  Lions 3 '  ?)  Thence  I  am  going  to  see  the  Vaughans 
and  Mr.  Wilson,  and  to  Scotland  to  work. 

You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  I  am  prospering  in  College, 
and  in  every  way  I  am  in  a  better  position  than  formerly. 
They  have  been  making  great  changes  in  the  University,  which 
will,  I  think,  be  for  the  advantage  of  Balliol  College.  Students 

1  P-  43°-  2  Preached  in  Balliol  Chapel. 

3  Good  Words  for  June  i,  1869. 


Letters,  1865-1 8 jo  433 

are  now  to  be  allowed  to  lodge  out,  which  will  enable  them  to 
come  to  Balliol  instead  of  going  to  other  Colleges.  If  we  had 
a  little  more  money  we  could  absorb  the  University. 


To 


[DONCASTER,  with  the  Vaughans], 

July,  [1869]. 

The  first  condition  of  working  for  a  few  years  longer  is 
absolute  calmness :  the  great  eifort  must  be  a  quieter  one, 
more  free  from  anxiety  and  personality.  As  we  get  older  we 
ought  to  know  ourselves,  and  to  know  the  world,  better,  and 
to  direct  the  blow  better,  and  to  be  indifferent  about  the  result, 
knowing  that  no  single  thing  is  of  so  much  importance  as 
appears  at  the  time,  if  we  only  go  on  to  the  end.  The  secret 
of  rest  is  to  live  and  act  on  a  higher  stage  of  life. 

To  

TUMMEL  BRIDGE,  July  15,  [1869]. 

I  will  promise  you  not  to  work  after  eleven  o'clock  at 
night.  I  enjoy  being  here,  and  work  with  pleasure.  Here 
is  a  good  air,  good  food,  perfect  retirement,  and  a  pleasant 
stream,  which  is  always  murmuring  night  and  day — much 
better  than  the  best  society. 

To  

July  29,  [1869]. 

I  get  more  and  more  struck,  I  think,  with  the  practical 
infidelity  of  the  present  age,  including  the  Bishops  and  the 
newspapers.  The  spirit  of  a  part  of  the  age  is  expressed 
in  C.  Buller's  witticism  :  '  Destroy  the  Church  of  England, 
sir  ?  why  you  must  be  mad  !  It  is  the  only  thing  which 
stands  between  us  and  real  religion.' 

Is  the  Church  of  England  like  an  old  house  which  will 
stand  for  ever  unless  it  is  pulled  down  ;  or  like  the  figure  of 
the  Etruscan  king  suddenly  exposed  to  the  air?  Figures  of 
speech  may  be  found  for  all  things.  But  I  think  there  will 
be  changes : — Because  ideas  have  sustained  a  rude  shock  by 

VOL.    I.  P  f 


434  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

the  easy  victory  over  the  Irish  Church  ;  because  Bibliolatry 
can  only  support  itself  by  priestcraft,  and  that  the  English 
people  will  not  stand. 

To  THE  MARQUIS  OF  LANSDOWNE. 

TUMMEL  BRIDGE,  PITLOCHRY, 
August  8,  1869. 

I  was  very  much  pleased  to  hear  of  your  approaching 
marriage,  and  wish  you  and  both  of  you  every  good  and 
happiness  in  life.  A  marriage  brightens  up  a  family  and 
does  good  in  all  sorts  of  ways.  And  the  greatest  good  of 
all  is  the  effect  on  a  man's  own  character  of  having  some 
one  for  whom  he  deeply  cares  and  who  deeply  cares  for  him. 

There  is  a  considerable  touch  of  poetry  in  being  in  love, 
and  there  ought  to  be  also  a  touch  of  poetry  in  life.  I  mean 
by  '  a  touch  of  poetry '  some  romantic  desire  to  do  good, 
some  ideal  higher  than  the  opinions  of  the  world.  There 
is  nothing  that  your  future  wife  will  care  about  half  so 
much  as  your  being  honoured  and  distinguished. 

No  one  ever  had  blessings  more  richly  showered  upon 
them  than  you  have,  including  this  last  and  greatest  blessing. 
And,  to  speak  plainly,  I  want  you  to  consider  how  you  can 
use  this  great  wealth  and  rank  for  the  highest  purposes. 

You  have  two  almost  inexhaustible  interests,  the  manage- 
ment of  your  estates  and  political  life.  You  will  probably 
hold  your  estates  for  fifty  years,  in  which  time  almost  any- 
thing may  be  accomplished  for  the  agriculture,  for  the  houses, 
and,  above  all,  for  the  people.  I  wish  that  you  would 
sometimes  think  what  you  would  desire  to  have  done  twenty- 
five  years  hence.  This  seems  to  be  very  important  in  the 
management  of  landed  property.  There  is  another  thing 
which  occurs  to  me  to  say  to  you.  It  is  of  great  importance 
if  you  have  a  large  property  to  know  all  about  it  with  the 
least  possible  trouble.  And  with  this  view  I  would  train  all 
the  people  whom  I  employed  to  make  returns  of  the  state  of 
the  farms,  houses,  schools,  and  sums  spent  upon  them.  I 
should  begin  by  getting  an  accountant  to  put  the  accounts  into 
the  very  best  form.  But  I  daresay  that  you  have  already  much 


Letters,  1865-1870  435 

greater  experience  of  business  than  I  have,  and  therefore  my 
hints  may  appear  superfluous. 

Great  success  in  politics  depends  on  working,  and  the 
power  which  you  have  of  taking  an  interest  in  them.  It  is 
easy  to  foresee  the  coming  questions.  The  Irish  Land, 
National  Education,  Pauperism.  Do  you  possess  the  art  of 
picking  other  people's  brains?  I  mean,  besides  reading 
and  study  of  questions,  getting  hold  of  the  person  who  knows 
most  about  them  viva  voce,  and  learning  his  opinions.  This 
is  a  great  shortening  of  labour  and  saves  many  mistakes. 

I  look  back  with  great  pleasure  to  the  time  which  we 
spent  together  at  this  place.  We  might  have  succeeded 
better,  but  I  don't  care  much  about  the  Second  Class,  as  I  see 
that  you  are  not  going  to  be  a  second-class  man  for  life.  I  feel 
very  strongly  your  regard  for  me,  and  I  wish  that  I  could 
have  done  more  for  you  than  I  did.  I  shall  be  delighted 
to  see  you  again,  and  hope  that  you  will  bring  your  bride  to 
visit  me  at  Oxford. 

[PS.]  I  heard  of  the  engagement  from  you  first. 

To  

TUMMEL  BRIDGE,  August  9,  1869. 

I  agree  with  you  very  much  about  the  Prayer  Book,  and 
have  never  thought  that  the  relaxation  of  subscription  is  any 
great  assistance  to  us.  The  making  people  repeat  the  Creed, 
prayer  for  fine  weather,  and  other  relief  from  temporal 
calamities ;  also,  in  another  way,  the  reading  of  parts 
of  the  Old  Testament,  is  thoroughly  demoralizing.  And  do 
but  think  of  the  hymns  they  sing.  A  good  essay  might  be 
written  on  the  Ideal  of  Public  Worship. 

You  require  (i)  some  common  feeling  concentrated  in  special 
acts  or  words  ;  (2)  the  greatest  latitude  for  individual  thought 
or  prayer ;  (3)  every  word  should  be  true ;  (4)  every  word 
should  be  elevating.  You  would  have  to  select  out  of 
ancient  liturgies  and  mediaeval  prayers.  For  no  one  can 
write  a  prayer  now  any  more  than  he  can  compose  an  epic 
poem  :  and  in  some  ways  antiquity  has  such  a  curious  religious 
power,  stronger  perhaps  than  the  belief  in  a  future  life. 

F  f  2 


436               Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 
To  

[September  i,  1869,  at  CORTACHY.] 

I  enclose  a  letter  from  my  beloved  '  Jack  1.  '  Jack  '  has  got 
two  commissions  from  the  Government,  or  rather,  three  :  (i)  to 
report  upon  the  land  laws  of  Prussia  (this  is  for  the  Cobden 
Club) ;  (2)  to  report  upon  the  Poor  Law  in  Prussia  (I  helped 
to  get  him  this) ;  (3)  the  Ecumenical  Council. 

To  (AFTER  THE  DEATH  OP  MRS.  JOWETT). 

TORQUAY,  October  23,  1869. 

I  have  her  face  following  me  as  she  looked  when  she  was 
alive.  It  was  the  pleasantest  face,  when  she  was  laid  to  rest, 
and  the  youngest  for  her  age  that  I  ever  saw. 

More  and  more  for  myself  I  see  two  or  three  things  which 
this  late  trouble  rather  tends  to  impress  on  me.  First,  that 
I  must  be  absorbed  in  my  work  and  use  all  means  towards 
this  (not  neglecting  health),  and  shut  out  all  trivial  thoughts 
and  personal  feelings  of  all  sorts.  Secondly,  that  I  must 
aim  at  perfect  calmness.  As  you  get  on  in  life  this  is  the 
only  way  in  which  strength  can  be  husbanded  and  made 
effectual.  Thirdly,  that  I  must  try  to  act  more  simply  and 
on  a  larger  scale,  not  tiring  myself  with  mere  drudgery,  or 
shrinking  into  a  coterie,  or  caring  only  for  the  affection 
of  admiring  friends.  Few  persons  have  worked  harder, 
and  yet  I  have  wasted  a  great  deal  of  time  and  have  not 

managed  well. 

TORQUAY,  October  31,  1869. 

I  went  to  see  my  dear  mother's  resting-place  to-day.  Her 
appearance  seems  to  follow  me  about.  I  was  pleased  to  see 
that  some  friend  had  put  flowers  on  the  grave. 

To  E.  B.  D.  MORIER,  C.B. 

INGLEWOOD,  TORQUAY, 

November  3,  1869. 

I  should  like  very  much  to  hear  from  you.  I  am  staying 
here  (for  the  next  fortnight)  in  consequence  of  the  death  of  my 

1  Mr.  Morier,  who,  from  being      blance,  was  always  called  '  Jack ' 
very  fat,  '  his  waist  being  great,'      with  his  familiars, 
as  well  as  other  points  of  resem- 


Letters,  1865-1870  437 

dear  mother.  She  was  taken  from  us  a  few  days  ago,  quite 
painlessly  (for  she  was  thought  to  be  asleep).  As  you  may 
suppose,  this  has  made  a  great  blank  to  us. 

I  hope  you  are  well  and  vigorous  and  have  made  progress 
in  your  three  schemes.  To  be  at  Darmstadt  is  very  dull, 
but  in  some  respects  it  is  advantageous,  because  it  gives 
you  time  to  read  and  write  and  make  a  name  for  yourself, 
which  you  may  never  have  again.  I  like  being  here  because 
I  never  go  out  and  have  absolute  undivided  time  for  work. 
In  this  way  I  get  on  far  better,  for  I  have  generally  been 
at  a  great  disadvantage,  having  two  lives  to  lead  instead 
of  one. 

I  hope  you  will  not  disappoint  us  in  your  reports ;  if  you 
send  me  any  of  them  I  shall  read  them  carefully. 

To  E.  B.  D.  MOEIER,  C.B. 

INGLEWOOD,  TORQUAY, 

November  12,  1869. 

Many  thanks  for  your  kind  letter,  which  gives  me  great 
pleasure.  My  mother's  death  makes  me  think  of  many  things. 
I  seem  to  see  her  constantly,  and  I  hope  the  memory  of  her 
will  follow  me  about  through  life.  Her  loss  makes  me  feel 
that  the  time  is  shorter  for  myself,  and  I  am  determined  to 
make  the  utmost  use  of  the  years  which  remain. 

I  am  glad  that  you  are  so  well ;  now  that  you  are  well  do 
not  let  yourself  get  ill  again  or  you  will  spoil  all.  I  believe 
that  anybody  may  keep  well,  (i)  who  takes  great  care  about 
diet  and  exercise,  (2)  who  lives  in  fresh  air,  and  who,  (3) 
being  determined  to  do  his  work,  never  allows  an  anxious 
thought  to  intrude :  (4)  Shall  I  add,  who  does  not  make 
a  chimney  of  himself  ? 

I  am  rather  sorry  that  you  are  going  so  much  into  the  historical 
and  antiquarian  view  of  the  question  !,  because  I  do  not  see 
how  this  can  be  made  a  basis  of  legislation  for  the  present, 
and  people  like  Lord  Granville  or  Lord  Clarendon  (as  you 
know  better  than  I  do)  will  not  read  further  than  Charlemagne 

1  Of  the  Prussian  Land  Laws :  see  p.  436. 


438  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

in  your  essay,  if  you  go  back  to  such  topics.  Do  not  be 
oppressed  with  your  work,  but  limit  it,  and  if  you  get  per- 
plexed, stop  for  a  day  or  two  and  begin  again.  My  plan  in 
writing  now  is  to  read  over  and  over  again  every  day  twenty 
or  thirty  pages  of  what  I  have  written,  after  reading  some- 
thing on  the  subject.  I  generally  find  that  without  trouble  to 
myself  new  thoughts  occur  to  me.  You  will  be  an  eminent 
writer  some  day.  But  no  one  reaches  that  without  immense 
labour. 

To  - 

TORQUAY,  November  12,  1869. 

The  weeks  pass  well  with  me  here,  for  I  do  neither  more 
nor  less  than  I  intended,  and  am  none  the  worse.  My  dear 
mother's  face  follows  me  about,  and  though  I  can  hardly 
believe  that  she  is  gone,  never  to  return,  I  feel  a  sort  of 
companionship  in  that. 

To  


INGLEWOOD,  TOKQUAY, 

December  31,  1869. 

There  was  a  time  ten  or  twelve  years  ago  when  I  was  out 
of  health  and  overworked  and  had  only  lukewarm  help  from 
friends.  Then  life  did  seem  dark  and  miserable.  But  that 
has  long  passed  away. 

I  do  not  anticipate  much  from  Mr.  Lowe's  zeal  and  kindness. 
For  Gladstone  will  surely  say  (if  he  has  no  mind  to  appoint 
Scott)  that  he  cannot  make  a  man  a  Bishop  for  the  sake  of 
doing  me  a  favour,  for  which  too  he  will  never  get  any  credit. 
I  am  quite  happy  to  be  as  I  am.  Though  I  acknowledge  that 
I  should  be  glad  to  carry  on  the  College  without  this  perpetual 
strife. 

To  MKS.  TENNYSON. 

INQLEWOOD,  TORQUAY, 

,T        m  December  31,  1869. 

DEAR  MRS.  TENNYSON, 

I  am  at  the  old  place,  and  at  the  old  work,  though  indeed 
I  feel  that  this  is  not  the  old  place,  since  my  dear  mother  was 
taken  from  us. 


Letters,  1865-1870  439 

I  am  very  much  pleased  with  the  new  volume 1.  I  think  that 
Alfred  must  feel  a  great  satisfaction  in  having  worked  out, 
though  in  another  way,  his  old  thought  of  King  Arthur.  He 
has  done  enough  and  more  than  enough  for  a  lifetime.  But 
still  I  hope  that  he  means  to  go  on,  and  that  he  may  find  new 
ideas  and  feelings  suggested  by  the  successive  periods  of  life. 

I  have  come  here  to  work  at  my  book,  of  which  I  hope 
that  a  few  months  will  now  see  the  completion.  At  the  end 
of  the  vacation,  about  the  last  week  in  January,  I  shall  hope 
to  come  and  spend  a  day  or  two  with  you,  if  you  will  have  me. 
I  often  think  with  gratitude  how  many  happy  days  during  the 
last  fourteen  years  I  have  spent  with  you,  and  hope  that  this 
much-prized  friendship  may  last  as  long  as  I  live. 

With  most  kind  regards  to  Alfred  and  the  boys, 

Believe  me,  dear  Mrs.  Tennyson, 

Ever  yours  affectionately, 

B.  JOWETT. 

To  


INGLEWOOD,  TORQUAY, 

January  12,  1870. 

.  .  .  The  Bishopric 2  with  which  I  amused  you  and  myself 
is  all  a  flare,  as  I  suspected.  Mr.  Lowe  says  :  '  Try  again,  better 
luck  next  time/ 

But  I  can  tell  you  a  better  thing.  I  finished  Vol.  iii  to- 
day, and  shall  send  the  few  remaining  sheets  to  the  printer 
to-morrow. 

I  do  not  care  about  the  matter  at  all.  I  have  long  seen  that 
my  main  chance  either  of  usefulness  or  distinction  is  writing.  . .  . 

I  stay  here  to  Sunday  week  and  shall  then  take  a  few  days' 
holiday.  I  work  hard,  but  I  find  myself  quite  well.  .  .  . 

To  


TORQUAY,  January  14,  1870. 

How  very  good  of  you  to  write  me  a  scrap  of  a  note  because  you 
thought  I  should  be  grieved  about  the  Bishopric  of  Manchester. 

1  The   Holy   Grail :    published      an  '  advanced '  copy, 
early  in  1870.     Jowett  had  seen          2  For  R.  Scott :  see  p.  408. 


440  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

Fraser  is  a  contemporary  and  acquaintance  of  mine — an 
honest,  free-spoken  man — a  good  speaker  and  preacher — not 
much  speculative  intelligence,  and  what  there  is  will  probably 
disappear  in  the  episcopal  swaddling. 

There  is  a  good  deal  both  of  comfort  and  of  serious  meaning 
in  that  saying  of  Lord  Melbourne's,  'My  dear  fellow,  would 
you  wear  such  a  dress  as  that  for  £10,000  a  year  ? ' 

This  is  the  best  place  in  which  I  ever  was  for  work,  the 
only  place  in  which  I  do  any  work.  And  as  yet  I  do  not  feel 
the  worse,  and  expect  to  survive  until  the  ist  of  June. 

To  E.  B.  D.  MOEIEE,  C.B. 

[January/,  1870.] 

...  I  spent  two  days  in  a  Scotch  house1  with  Gladstone, 
who  talks  (I  thought)  rashly  about  the  Land  Question. 
I  imagine  that  he  and  Bright  are  the  only  members  of 
the  Cabinet  who  are  likely  to  be  in  favour  of  extreme 
measures. 

Have  you  read  any  books  about  the  Irish  Question  ?  I  am 
told  that  the  right  books  are  :  (i)  The  Eeport  of  Lord  Devon's 
Commission ;  (2)  Lord  Dufferin's  book ;  (3)  Mr.  Maguire's 
book.  The  great  difficulty  is  the  small  holder.  When  it  is 
said,  as  Gladstone  says,  that  land  is  a  question  of  life  and 
death  to  the  Irish  peasant,  I  think  it  should  be  remembered 
that  he  has  the  Poor  Law  and  employment  as  a  farm  labourer 
and  emigration.  G.  had  a  ridiculous  notion  (he  had  a  great 
many)  that  the  reason  why  the  Irishman  in  America  hung 
about  the  great  cities  was  that  he  had  such  melancholy 
recollections  of  agriculture  in  his  own  country ! 

I  am  hoping  to  finish  Plato  if  I  am  industrious  and  don't  go 
visiting  this  spring.  If  I  am  alive  I  shall  come  and  see  you  at 
the  beginning  of  the  summer,  and  bring  the  four  volumes  with 
me.  It  would  have  been  a  gain  for  me  if  Scott  had  been 
made  a  Bishop,  but  I  don't  complain,  for  I  have  the  College 
better  in  hand  than  formerly.  I  shall  go  on  as  I  have  done 
with  the  College,  and  try  to  find  more  time  for  writing. 
Though  I  am  not  yet  old,  I  feel  that  the  years  are  getting 

1  Viz.  Camperdown,  near  Dundee.     See  p.  406. 


Letters,  1865-1870  441 

on.  I  think  in  the  next  ten  or  fifteen  years  I  must  do  what 
I  have  to  do. 

...  I  am  very  anxious  that  you  should  take  care  of  your 
health,  and  should  make  the  reports 1  a  success.  Would  you 
like  me  to  look  at  any  of  them  ?  I  am  sure  that  you  may 
become  a  first-rate  writer :  the  great  art  is  to  combine  weighty 
words  with  perfect  consecutiveness.  You  have  plenty  of 
imagination  and  expression — a  severer  logic  is  the  thing  to  be 
aimed  at. 

If  you  come  over  to  England  for  a  day  or  two,  let  me  know 
and  I  will  try  to  meet  you.  We  must  both  of  us  do  our 
utmost  in  life,  and  a  good  talk  is  sometimes  a  great  help 
in  this. 

To  PROFESSOR  EDWARD  CAIRD. 

January  28,  [1870]. 

I  feel  very  guilty  in  not  having  answered  either  of  your  kind 
letters.  I  did  not  answer  the  first  because  I  hoped  to  come  to 
you,  and  I  did  not  answer  the  second  because  I  had  something 
of  importance  to  say  which  I  was  not  able  finally  to  determine. 
These  are  the  excuses  that  bad  correspondents  make.  I  do  not 
defend  myself,  and  can  only  hope  that  you  have  attributed  my 
silence  to  the  true  cause — carelessness,  and  the  pressure  of  other 
matters  during  the  last  few  months. 

What  I  am  going  to  speak  about  I  will  request  you  to  keep 
strictly  private.  Wilson  and  I  have  determined  to  have 
a  second  volume  of  Essays  and  Reviews,  to  appear  on  or  about 
January  i,  1871.  We  mean  to  take  every  possible  pains  that 
this  volume  should  be  adequate  to  the  subjects  of  which  it  treats, 
and  should  be  written  in  a  religious  spirit.  Wilson  proposes 
to  write  on  the  progressive  principle  of  Protestantism,  showing 
the  element  of  progress  in  the  Eeformation,  and  the  element 
of  fixedness.  I  am  intending  to  write  (perhaps)  two  essays. 
The  first,  on  the  Eeign  of  Law,  showing  (i)  the  relation  of 
the  laws  of  Nature  to  Morality,  and  (2)  the  impossibility  of 

1  Morier's  report  on  The  Agra-  by  the  Cobden  Club  in  their  series 
rian  Legislation  of  Prussia  during  of  Essays  on  Systems  of  Land 
the  Present  Century  Was  published  Tenure  in  Various  Countries. 


442  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

basing  religion  on  miracles.  The  second  essay  would  be  on 
the  present  and  future  position  of  the  Church  of  England, 
discussing  its  present  state  and  possibilities  of  establishment 
and  disestablishment.  Campbell  has  promised  to  write  on  the 
mis-translations  and  mis-readings  of  the  English  New  Testa- 
ment. We  think  also  of  applying  to  Stanley,  to  Miiller,  to 
Deutsch,  Pattison,  and  Dean  Elliot.  I  think  that  we  shall  go 
on  even  if  several  or  all  of  these  refuse. 

You  will  anticipate  that  this  explanation  is  a  preface  to 
a  request  that  you  would  join  us.  We  are  going  to  propose  to 
you  to  write  on  Morality,  Keligion,  Theology,  though  any 
other  subject  which  agreed  with  the  general  design  of  the 
book  we  should  gladly  accept.  What  do  you  think  ?  (Excuse 
bad  writing  in  a  railway.)  Of  course  no  one  can  write  on 
these  subjects  without  incurring  a  certain  amount  of  odium, 
and  the  adversaries  will  probably  be  bitter,  because  they  think 
that  they  have  extinguished  us,  and  will  find  that  they  have 
not.  The  old  name  is  likely  both  to  command  attention  and 
bring  odium.  The  position  which  we  are  likely  to  take  up  is 
the  most  hateful  to  them,  that  of  religious  men  who  care  about 
the  truth.  On  the  other  hand  I  care  nothing  at  all  for  abuse — 
I  have  nothing  to  fear  or  expect — and  I  think  it  a  duty  to  do 
what  I  can  to  meet  the  low  superstition  and  the  low  material- 
ism of  the  day.  In  another  ten  years  half  the  English  clergy 
will  be  given  up  to  a  fetish  priest-worship  of  the  Sacrament. 
What  course  religion  will  take  in  Scotland  it  is  difficult  to  say. 
But  it  is  plainly  our  duty  to  see  what  we  can  do  towards 
meeting  this.  The  English  bishops  will  do  nothing — nor, 
I  fear,  Dr.  Temple.  .  .  .  Our  principles  are  not  worth  much  if 
they  are  not  intended  to  elevate  human  life  and  are  only  matter 
of  academical  discussion. 

I  think  you  are  much  in  the  same  independent  position  as 
myself,  and  that  is  a  reason  why  I  ask  you.  We  propose  to 
be  careful  not  to  get  entangled  with  the  law.  I  have  great 
confidence  in  Wilson's  ability  and  high  principle.  Poor 
Williams,  whose  warmth  of  temper  might  have  been  trouble- 
some to  us,  has  been  taken  just  as  we  were  about  to  apply 
to  him.  I  think  that  we  shall  probably  insert  in  the  preface 
a  short  notice  of  Baden  Powell  and  of  him.  If  you  join  us 


Letters,  1865-1 8jo  443 

I  shall  hope  that  we  may  have  suggestions  from  you  about  the 
form  of  the  book,  and  about  the  persons  to  be  engaged.  We 
feel  that  it  is  a  very  serious  undertaking  and  great  responsibility, 
but  are  determined  crvv  0ew  1  to  go  on.  The  volume  would  be 
500  or  550  pages,  and  your  essay  might  be  of  any  length  up  to 
sixty  or  eighty  pages.  In  June  I  get  rid  of  Plato,  and  shall 
devote  the  last  six  months  to  this. 

To  • 

OXFORD,  January  30,  1870. 

...  I  am  glad  that  you  liked  my  sermon.  They  none  of 
them  seem  to  me  at  all  good.  I  want  boundless  leisure  to 
write  really  good  sermons,  if  I  could  at  all,  and  these  are 
struck  off  rather  at  a  heat  and  scamped  towards  the  end.  .  .  . 

Here  I  commence  the  old  routine  for  the  thirtieth  time  at 
least.  I  have  a  better  chance  now  than  formerly,  having 
the  whole  entirely  under  my  control.  And  I  hope  to  take 
a  particular  and  individual  interest  in  every  man  in  College. 
That  is  my  aim.  The  College  re-elected  me  preacher  yesterday. 

To  

February  19,  1870. 

I  go  on  happily  here.  I  see  nearly  every  undergraduate 
once  a  week,  and  I  find  that  has  a  good  effect  on  me,  and 
I  hope  on  them. 

To  PEOFESSOE  EDWAED  GATED. 

BALLIOL  COLLEGE,  February  24,  [1870]. 

I  am  very  glad  to  hear  that  you  are  able  and  willing  to 
join  us.  The  Plato  will  be  off  my  hands  by  July  i,  and 
then  I  shall  devote  my  time  to  constructing  two  essays — 
one  on  the  Eeign  of  Law  and  another  on  the  Life  of  Christ 
as  the  Centre  of  the  Christian  world — for  the  book. 

Since  I  wrote  to  you  I  have  spoken  to  Bowen  and  to  Max 
Muller.  Max  Mtiller  hesitates.  He  is  giving  some  lectures 
in  London  on  the  Science  of  Eeligion,  and  he  says  that  he 

1  '  God  helping  us.' 


444  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett        [CHAP,  xn 

wishes  to  see  the  effect  of  them  first.  Bowen  will  help  us 
if  he  can  possibly  find  time,  and  is  to  let  me  know  in  April. 
He  will  take  for  his  subject  the  position  of  the  Church  of 
England,  (i)  if  established,  (2)  if  disestablished  ;  and  the  future 
modes  of  proceeding  in  either  alternative.  He  is  an  excellent 
writer  and  will  be  a  most  valuable  aid. 

Wilson  is  also  writing  to  Dr.  Davidson,  and  will  ask  him 
to  write  an  essay  on  the  important  mis-translations  of  the 
Old  Testament  parallel  to  Campbell's  on  important  mis-transla- 
tions of  the  New  Testament.  I  put  before  Campbell  the  con- 
siderations of  which  you  speak,  but  he  does  not  seem  to  be 
moved  by  them,  and  if  our  book  is  what  I  hope  we  shall  make 
it,  and  he  is  careful  with  his  own  essay,  I  do  not  think  he  will 
be  injured  by  his  association  with  us. 

I  quite  agree  with  you  in  what  you  say  about  the  importance 
of  having  an  eminent  scientific  man  among  the  contributors. 
The  difficulty  is  to  find  a  suitable  person.  I  think  that 
I  will  talk  over  the  matter  in  confidence  with  Henry  Smith 
and  will  write  to  you  again  about  this  in  a  few  days. 

I  hope  that  we  may  be  able  to  spend  a  few  days  together 
in  the  summer  and  talk  over  our  respective  portions  of 
the  work.  I  sometimes  think  that  the  world  is  getting  de- 
moralized by  the  utter  disregard  of  truth.  People  have  no 
fixed  principles  and  no  education  in  the  higher  sense,  and  all 
sorts  of  Eitualisms  and  Spiritualisms  and  Aestheticisms  take 
their  place  (just  at  this  moment  the  Aesthetic  seems  to  have 
got  a  curious  hold  at  Oxford).  The  spirit  in  which  we  want 
to  write  is  the  simple  love  of  truth,  the  reassertion  of  the 
truism  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  truth,  and  that  the  alarms 
and  vague  fears  of  scepticism — foundations  of  society  under- 
mined, &c.,  &c. — are  simply  tiresome,  and  unmeaning  to  a 
reasonable  man. 

I  think  that  an  interesting  mode  of  treating  your  subject 
would  be  to  point  out  historically  how  Eeligion  comes  first 
in  the  growth  of  Human  Nature — then  Morality  parts  company 
with  it  and  in  some  degree  reacts  upon  it :  and  how  they 
must  be  reunited  and  perfectly  identified  before  the  work  is 
completed.  The  true  conception  of  Theology  would  seem 
to  be  the  perfect  intellectual  expression  of  this. 


Letters,  1865-1870  445 

The  more  we  can  avoid  Hegelianism,  Germanism,  or  direct 
assaults  upon  received  opinions,  the  better. 

There  is  a  striking  expression  of  Diderot's  that  '  all  revealed 
or  national  religions  are  only  perversions  of  the  Religion  of 
Nature.'  This  is  true  if  the  words  '  Eeligion  of  Nature '  be  taken 
in  the  highest  sense.  And  perhaps  the  truth  would  be  better  ex- 
pressed by  calling  them  tendencies  toward  a  Eeligion  of  Nature. 

Excuse  my  writing  to  you  by  the  hand  of  another,  which, 
having  a  great  deal  to  do,  I  find  to  be  a  great  assistance. 

I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  of  the  death  of  Lord  Barcaple 1. 
Did  you  know  him  at  all  ?  He  was  one  of  the  best  people  in 
Scotland. 

To  LADY  STANLEY  OF  ALDERLEY. 

OXFORD,  June  n,  1870. 

Thank  you  very  much  for  your  kind  note.  I  believe  that  it 
is  to  be  as  you  suppose.  There  is  certainly  a  great  pleasure 
and  pride  in  being  the  Head  of  Balliol  College,  and  I  hope 
that  I  may  be  able  to  do  something  worth  doing. 

Lyulph's  letter  is  extremely  interesting.  I  wish  that  he 
were  still  a  Fellow2. 

To  DEAN  STANLEY. 

OXFORD,  June  13,  1870. 
MY  DEAR  STANLEY, 

Thank  you  for  your  most  kind  note,  which  gave  me  great 
pleasure.  I  am  delighted  at  the  prospect  of  having  the 
Mastership,  because  it  offers  such  great  opportunities,  and 
also  because  I  want  more  rest  and  leisure  to  think,  and  I 
have  been  overworked  for  many  years  past.  It  doubles  the 
pleasure  to  me  that  you  and  many  others  rejoice  with  me. 

I  have  two  schemes  in  which  I  want  your  help  :  I  will  tell 
you  about  them  when  we  meet  on  Saturday. 

Thank  you  for  reminding  me  that  your  mother  would  have 
been  pleased. 

1  Edward  Francis  Maitland,  a      Jowett's  great  regret,  had  resigned 
Scottish  Judge.  his  Fellowship  in  1869. 

2  The  Hon.  E.  L.  Stanley,  to 


446  Life  of  Benjamin  Jowett 

To  MES.  TENNYSON. 

June,  1870. 
MY  DEAR  MRS.  TENNYSON, 

A  thousand  thanks  for  your  kind  note :  it  rejoices  my 
heart  that  my  friends  rejoice,  I  must  now  endeavour  to  see 
very  seriously  'what  can  be  made  of  a  College.' 

May  I  have  the  pleasure  of  coming  to  see  you  for  a  few 
days  on  Wednesday  next  ? 

Plato  is  nearly  finished,  and  I  hope  to  bring  him  out  on 
the  same  day,  September  7,  on  which  I  am  formally  elected 
to  the  Mastership. 

With  love  to  Alfred  (in  haste). 

Ever  yours, 

B.  JOWETT. 


END    OF   VOL.    I. 


OXFORD  :    HORACE   HART 
PRINTER   TO    THE   UNIVERSITY 


JC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000490418     1 


DOXEY    I 


